Classroom discussions promote academic success by building powerful communication and reasoning skills.

This Discussion Builders poster for grades 4-8 helps students of all achievement levels build these crucial skills. Sentence stems on the poster provide students with a scaffold for voicing their ideas and questions and valuing others’ contributions.

The poster is a powerful tool for helping students—including English language learners—present and expand on their ideas. The language in the grades 4-8 poster supports sophisticated thinking processes by prompting students to consider counter-examples and conjectures and to justify various options.

A quick-guide for teachers explains how to get students talking—and thinking—more conceptually. The guide includes tasks and blackline masters for introducing and sustaining the use of Discussion Builders in any subject area.

This poster for grades 4-8 is one in a set of three that also supports discussions in grades K-1 and 2-3. As a set, the posters and teaching guides scaffold progressively more sophisticated language and reasoning across the grades.

Posters can be ordered individually or as a set.

Participate in our one-day Discussion Builders Workshop, which will further enhance your ability to lead effective discussions that boost collaborative and respectful critical thinking among your students.