Silent Conversation: Responding to Literary Stimuli

Rationale:
The silent conversation is a discussion activity that allows students to converse through writing.
This activity provides a platform for every voice to be heard. Students utilize both the silence
and the written word to focus on their own responses and those of their peers. The slower pace
of a written conversation facilitates depth in responses and gives reticent students a forum for
their thoughts.

Materials:
Timer; Colored pens/pencils/markers; Chosen stimulus in either large (poster) or small (8x11
paper) format, Guidelines for students (transparency)

Procedure:
Stimuli:
The teacher selects several stimuli to which student groups will respond. The stimuli may be
words, questions, quotations, character names, headlines, historical documents, short articles,
excerpts from literature, poetry, or images. Stimuli may be grouped by topic, concept, or unit.
Alternatively, student groups may be given the same stimuli and asked to reply to the thoughts
of their peers. Write sentence stems around the stimuli to guide responses.
Stimuli are taped to the center of a poster. Students will write responses to the stimuli and their
peers thoughts in the blank space surrounding the stimuli.
Large Poster Silent Conversation:
1. Create student groups. Three to five students per group works best. Assign each group a
color and give them a bag of pens/markers/pencils that correspond with their group color. For
example, the purple group would all write with purple pens.
2. Situate each group at stations where each member will have space to write and equal
access to the poster. One strategy is to push all desks to the sides of the room and place the
posters on the floor; students then sit on the floor around the poster. Another option is to tape
posters to the walls, though this works best with smaller groups.
3. Give, or present on the overhead, the students the guidelines of the activity. Review
purpose and goals as well as logistics. Emphasize the usage of the provided sentence stems,
which can be changed to suit the goals of each discussion as students become familiar with this
activity. Also emphasize that the conversation is silent: they must write to express their
thoughts, questions, and connections.
4. Establish time limits. Students responding to an image or very short line of text might only
be given five minutes to view and respond before physically moving on, in groups, to the next
station. However, if the text is more extensive, or if you want students to more deeply respond

to one another, then time limits must correspondingly increase. In this regard it simplifies the
activity if all stimuli are similar so that each group will spend roughly the same amount of time
working. (*It is helpful to establish a pattern of movement, such as clockwise, prior to beginning
the activity. With middle school students I have found that the organized physical movement
within this lesson helps keep them focused. With younger students it is also important to remind
them that they should be responding to their classmates and that they may connect responses
by using arrows or lines.)
5. Conduct an individual gallery walk. After students have traveled through each station in
groups, they may walk individually to revisit and respond to any stimulus or response.
6. Conclude with a discussion. Students return to their original groups and can participate in
either group discussion or a whole class discussion. You may prompt discussion simply by
asking, What did you learn from the silent conversation? It may be interesting to have
students reflect upon the activity and discuss possible modifications that could tailor it for the
needs of a specific class.

Variations:
Small Paper Format: Display the stimuli in the center of regular 8x11 paper. Groups of four or
five students sit in a circle. Each student is given a stimulus. Students begin by reading and
responding to their stimulus. After a set amount of time, students pass their stimuli until each
student has worked with each paper. When students receive their original paper, they read
through all comments and finish with a group discussion about the questions and ideas arising
from the activity.
Gallery Walk Format: Should you prefer a more free-form structure, perhaps for older students,
a gallery walk format may be preferable. Affix the stimuli at intervals throughout your space on
the walls. After briefing students on guidelines, they can move independently about the space
reading, commenting, questioning, and responding.

Extensions:

Paper about a topic chosen from the conversation

Presentation about research arising from questions in the conversation
Classroom discussion and debate concerning conversation topics and ideas
The conversation could be used to introduce, process, or conclude a unit of study
The conversation could be used to analyze media, images, and other graphic
representations

The following is an example of a silent conversation used to explore the themes of a novel and
to support comprehension through personal connection and peer discussion.
The Silent Conversation
In order to discuss themes and ideas from the graphic novel American Born Chinese, we are
going to have a silent conversation. Below is a basic outline of the activity. It should take us
approximately 50 minutes to complete if we are diligent and focused!

There will be 8 stations with a large sheet of paper. In the center of each paper there will
be a prompt in the form of a question, quote, image, or word. You will respond to these
prompts in writing. Be sure that you write small enough for everyone to be able to respond.
If you run out of room, write on the back of the paper.

All responses should be relevant to the prompt or your personal experience. Be respectful
of your peers and respond using appropriate language. You will be accountable for your
work.

Students will work in groups of 3 or 4. There will be 8 groups.

Each group will have a bag of markers, and each group will have a color with which to
respond. Please keep the same marker with you as you move from station to station. In
each group, one member will have the responsibility of returning the bag of markers to
instructors.

Students will be given only 4 minutes to respond. The group must then move on to the next
station and respond. Each group will end up at their original station.

When you have reached your original station, you will have an opportunity to read others
responses and respond in kind. (gallery walk)
Response Guidelines:
You may respond by addressing some aspect of the prompt by writing a question or
statement. We are focusing on thoughts, connections, and reflections.
OR
You may respond using one of the following sentence stems:
1. I think that this prompt represents
2. When I see this prompt it makes me feel
3. When I see this prompt it makes me think of (related to a personal experience)

Read the comments of others as you participate. You may draw an arrow from an
interesting response and respond to it. Thus, without talking, you will be interacting not only
with the prompt but also with your peers.
*Mentally note questions or thoughts that you find provocative and would like to discuss
later.

The following is an example of a silent conversation with an image prompt about stereotyping.
The Silent Conversation
In order to discuss themes and ideas from the novel Monster we are going to have a silent
conversation. Below is a basic outline of how the activity will run, it should take us
approximately 50 minutes to complete the activity if we are diligent and focused!

There will be 8 stations with a large sheet of paper. In the center of each paper there will
be a prompt in the form of an image. You will respond to this prompt in writing. Be sure that
you write small enough for everyone to be able to respond. If you run out of room, write on
the back of the paper.

All responses should be relevant to the prompt or your personal experience. Be respectful
of your peers and respond using appropriate language. You will be accountable for your
work.

Students will work in groups of 3 or 4. There will be 8 groups.

Each group will have a bag of markers, and each group will have a color with which to
respond. Please keep the same marker with you as you move from station to station. In
each group, one member will have the responsibility of returning the bag of markers to
instructors.

Students will be given only 4 minutes to respond. The group must then move on to the next
station and respond. Each group will end up at their original station.

When you have reached your original station, you will have an opportunity to read others
responses and respond in kind. (gallery walk)
Response Guidelines:
You may respond by using one of the following roots:
1. From looking at this person, I think he/she would/would not commit a crime, because.
2. From looking at this person, I think he/she has personality traits of . . . , because.
3. From looking at this person, I think a court would probably treat them. (Describe the
manner in which their trial and sentencing would be fair or unfair), because
4. When I look at this person, I think . (Relate this comment to your personal experience)

Read the comments of others as you participate. You may draw an arrow from an
interesting response and respond to it. Thus, without talking, you will be interacting not only
with the prompt but also with your peers.
* Mentally note questions or thoughts that you find provocative and would like to discuss
later