We track anonymous visitor behavior on our website to ensure you have a great experience. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

Say Something Cards

Giving students scaffolding for peer-led classroom conversations

Context

A crucial part of English language acquisition is the ability to engage in conversation. Say Something cards provide students with sentence stems to support group discussions with peers and oral participation in whole group conversations. The sentence stems are grouped into different categories so as to better guide students to the right type of stem (e.g., when asking a question, making an inference, or clarifying something). Cards can be printed out in decks for students to keep handy for quick reference during classroom conversations. Although ideal for upper elementary to high school, the cards can be modified to include simpler sentence stems for emerging readers.

Student Does

  • Utilizes cards when additional support is needed
  • Uses a variety of sentence stems to guide conversation

Teacher Does

  • Models using the same stems given to students to provide exemplars
  • Provides direct instruction on how to use the cards and what the meanings of the stems are