Tips for Online Face-to-Face Discussions

By Kathleen Ralf, Frankfurt International School

Tip #1: Provide an outline of discussion points in advance

Giving kids the outline of what they will be talking about is essential. What do you want
your students to be able to talk about? If you will be having a discussion, make sure you post
the questions you will ask at least 24 hours ahead of time. This allows students to prepare
what they might want to say, have relevant notes and resources available when discussing
during the meeting, and gives ESL kids time to process the task.
In PowerSchool Learning, or Google Classroom, create your face-to-face discussion
assignment. List the questions you will want to talk about. For younger kids, posting
sentence starters will help them know how to comment and formulate their responses. This
works great for asynchronous discussions too.
Create a rubric that you will use to formatively assess their participation/understanding of
the topic. By sharing this with students prior to the discussion, they will be more clear on the
expectations you have for them during your face-to-face time together.
Tip #2: Enhance the learning environment
● When students enter the discussion space, have them mute their sound.
Background noise can interfere with the way students can be heard. Dogs barking,
TV, etc can be a distraction to others in the group. Or, there might be lag for some
 students. If they have their sound on, you will hear an echo whenever someone talks.
Mute will also get them focused on you and what instructions you might give, rather
than the various funny sounds being broadcast by their classmates.
● Use the Gallery View mode. This allows you to see all students at once. This is crucial
for classroom management. Kids like this mode as well, because then they get to see
each other as a whole group.

Tip #3: Plan your delivery

● Start off with some sort of question to set the mood. Students will be at home
missing the contact with friends and teachers, so be sure to give time for a little chit
chat to get things started. It could be as simple as asking them, “How are you doing?”
or it could be more content related like, “If you could be one of the Egyptian
pharaohs we have studied so far, which one would you be?” Don’t expect depth
here, just try to get them comfortable with the room. Just do what you normally do
to start class to create a positive atmosphere.
● Adapt your in-person best practices to online best practices. If you want to get the
class started by checking to see what they know from the lessons they have done on
their own, play a Kahoot! Using Zoom “Screen Share” mode you would project the
screen as you normally would from your whiteboard, then they can log in to Kahoot
using their phone app or by opening another window in Chrome. You could do this
with Quizlet live as well for an added challenge. Or go old school with mini-
whiteboards. Ask quiz-like questions and have students write their answers on a
sheet of paper. Then when prompted, they put their answers up to the screen. Or
you could use the Screen Share function that allows you to use an interactive
whiteboard with the class. Have students write a sample response, then other
students can annotate or give feedback.
 If you want to give a lecture or quick talk, use the Screen Share again to present
slides. Or you could even have students use Screen Share and present their slides to
the rest of the class. Or maybe you want students to demonstrate how to do
something for all.

Tip #4: Support discussion using tools

● Use the Manage Participants function to see who has a question or wants to speak.
When you click on this function you will see a list of everyone in the room. Students
can click a button to raise their hand. You can un-raise their hand and respond to
them or call on them. This keeps people from talking over each other. If you are “no
hands up” classroom. Just call on students to speak.

● Use the Chat function to share resources or troubleshoot problems. This could be a
way for your students to offer silent feedback, like “Hey Bob, that was a great point!”
 Or it could be used to share resources. A student may have found an interesting
article or website that they want to share. They can enter those links in the chat.
What happens if you see a student but can’t hear them, and they don’t have the
mute button on. Train your students to use the chat to say, “Hey, something isn’t
working.” Then you are able to talk to them and guide them on how to fix it.
● Use Break-Out rooms to create a space for students to do group collaboration or
small group discussions. Sometimes 20 people in one space is a little overwhelming.
You can use the Break-Out room function to put students in groups. You can select
how many students you want in each room and have Zoom automatically select
people to rooms. Or you can self select who you want in each group.
You can then pop in and out of the rooms to answer questions or offer feedback. You
can’t see what is going on in the rooms though if you are not there. You can also
send text messages to the room to give further instructions. With just the click of a
button you can get everyone back together.

Tip #5: Trust yourself

● This is just good teaching right?! It isn’t rocket science. This is the good stuff you are
probably doing all the time in your classes. You get their attention, set the tone,
deliver content, have opportunities for formative feedback, and create spaces for
small and large group discussion.
In the beginning this can feel weird and sometimes uncomfortable. Even our
students might feel a little weirded out by it. Try to be comfortable in making
mistakes and be comfortable with things not going as planned. And you never
know….you might find that you really like doing things this way.