Examines the importance of using quality dialogue as a tool to help students understand complex issues in social studies classrooms. The author provides a collection of well-known, evidence-based discussion techniques as well as classroom examples showing the methods in use.

Contents Foreword  Diana E. Hess  vii Acknowledgments  xi Introduction  Jane C. Lo  1 Part I: Engaging in Classroom Discussions 1.  Guiding Principles for Using Classroom Discussion  11 Bruce E. Larson 2.  Preparing Teachers for Current and Controversial Issue Discussion  27 Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, Mary Ellen Daneels, and Noorya Hayat 3.  Supporting Civic Discussions With Younger Students  44 Terence A. Beck Part II: Unpacking Well-Known Discussion Techniques in the Social Studies 4.  Socratic Seminar: Learning With and From Each Other While Interpreting Complex Text  63 Jada Kohlmeier 5.  Structured Academic Controversy: What It Can Be  73 Walter C. Parker 6.  Structure Matters: Comparing Deliberation and Debate  90 Paula McAvoy and Arine Lowery 7.  Document-Based Discussions in History: Orienting Students to the Discipline  106 Abby Reisman 8.  Embedding Discussion Throughout Inquiry  124 María del Mar Estrada Rebull, Chauncey Monte-Sano, Amanda Jennings, and Jeff Kabat Part III: Expanding Toward More Equitable Discussions 9.  Talking Politics Online: Educating for Online Civic and Political Dialogue  143 Erica Hodgin 10.  The Structures We Live In: Discussing Racialization of Neighborhoods to Transform the Null Curriculum  161 Jacob S. Bennett, H. Richard Milner IV, and Bryant O. Best 11.  Get Out of Your Own Way: Sharing Power to Engage Students of Color in Authentic Conversations of Social Inequity  176 Dane Stickney, Elizabeth Milligan Cordova, and Carlos P. Hipolito-Delgado 12.  Supporting Youth to Engage in Authentic Civic Dialogue in Our “Actually Existing” Democracy  192 Nicole Mirra and Antero Garcia Concluding Thoughts  209 Jane C. Lo Appendix A: Pledge of Allegiance Mini Unit  215 Appendix B: Ticket to Pledge Seminar  217 Appendix C: Pledge Discussion Guide  219 Appendix D: The Pledge of Allegiance Supreme Court Cases  223 Appendix E: You Be the Judge: Frazier v. Winn  225 About the Editor and Contributors  229 Index  235

“Theoretically, empirically, and practically, Making Classroom Discussions Work: Methods for Quality Dialogue in the Social Studies is a powerful and important book. I commend Professor Lo for bringing together such a rich collection of chapters written by some of our field’s best thinkers. If you care about the importance of high-quality discussions in social studies and also want to become a better discussion teacher, I strongly encourage you to read this book.” —From the Foreword by Diana E. Hess, dean, Karen A. Falk Distinguished Chair in Education, University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education