A Schoology Discussion is a tool that allows students to have a discussion about any given topic on Schoology. From a SAMR Substitution & Augmentation level, students can respond to discussion questions or prompts, as they would in a regular classroom setting, and use the discussion as a way to collaborate with other students in a visible way. From a Modification level, students can share images and videos that capture key ideas in a lesson or that demonstrate a particular skill.
A helpful teacher tool is that you can choose to moderate discussions and give approval for posts. This helps to ensure that students are using discussions appropriately.
Below you will find a few video tutorials to help you get started, or check out this Schoology documentation {
here}
Promoting Student Voice and Parent Engagement with Schoology Discussions
For students who feel shy sharing in class, this may be a great way to encourage student participation in discussion. It can also be an excellent way to practice writing and discussion skills that are related to CCSS.
Additionally, you could use a discussion to help students highlight what they were excited to learn in a particular unit or week. Students have the ability to post photos and videos that could spotlight visually what they love about your class. This could be a great way for you to gauge what is really interesting to your students so you can expand on the activities and topics that they love.
Because parents can view what their child posts in Schoology, you could let students use this as a communication tool with the intention of sharing with parents what students are doing and are really excited about throughout the day. Sharing work, ideas, photos and videos in this way would give parents a window into your classroom and would give them something they could discuss with their students.
Prepping StudentsBefore turning students loose on a discussion, be sure to prep them about your expectations. Consider CCSS Speaking and Listening standards and strategies that could apply to the discussion format. If you are going to use a rubric, go over the rubric with them. You can find an example discussion rubric that you can add to your own resources area in the FTIS Elementary EdTech Group Under Schoology>>Teacher Resources>> Course Materials How Tos>> Discussions.
You'll also want to review Schoology and Email Dos and Don'ts with your Students.
Below you will find:
- Schoology & Email Dos and Don'ts
- Sample Discussion Board Rules
- An Example Rubric
- Ideas for Use and Ideas related to SAMR & Bloom's
- How to videos that show: How to enable moderation, create a discussion, how to participate in a discussion from a student point of view, how to approve posts and what posts look like from the parent side. Feel free to share the student and parent videos if needed!
