Canvas Discussions: Get students using discourse with each other - even at home!

I always want my students to be using academic and science discourse in my class as much as possible. I’d also love to be able to sit at each small group conversation to hear what students are saying. It’s such a window into their understanding and thinking!

Luckily, Canvas has a “Discussion” option that helps make this possible. It is easy, efficient, and can get students “talking” even outside their current class hour.

Let’s start by looking at a discussion I use early in the school year when we learn about how slowly molecules move in a cold substance.

Students read an article and completed the following:

• Write 3-4 sentences summarizing what it's about.
• Write 1-2 sentences connecting what you read in the article with science facts you've learned. (i.e. explain something in the article with science concept you've learned)
• Then write one curiosity question you now have.
• Post your answer in your discussion group.
• Finally, respond to at least one other student in your group. Your response should comment on something specific in the post. Please do not simply say vague statements such as "I agree."
• If there is a mistake in the student's post, point it out and explain the correction.
• Comment on the curiosity question with another question, an article you found, a video, a related question, a personal experience, etc.

As you can see, this discussion post includes students:

• Reading
• Connecting to content learned in class (applying knowledge from class to new scenario)
• Asking a question (a science practice standard)
• Reading (another student’s post)
• Comment on another student’s post. (there is not much science discourse happening here… but it’s one of the first discussions. You’ll see another example that includes more science discourse below).

Other ideas for discussion topics. (Sorry - all examples are science specific…)

• Give students a “what if’ scenario. They have to answer the “what if” using information they have learned in class.
• Example: What if the cell membrane were not permeable to oxygen? How would cells be impacted? Which organelles specifically would be impacted and why?
• Example: If your body did not have a circulatory system, how would it be affected?
• Give students a debatable question. They have to support their answer with content learned in class. 
• Example: Which is the most important organelle for a cell?
• Example: Which part of the engineering process is most important?
• Give students a review question. This is just to help you see where they are at. You wouldn’t necessarily have students respond to each other, but having it as a discussion lets students see others’ responses.
• Example: What is the “glue” that holds together a covalent bond?
• Example: Which state of matter do atoms/molecules move the most?
• Have students write an analogy. Students can respond to each other. You can have the student's response include content from class as support for their critique of the analogy.
• Example: What is an analogy that represents the levels of organization?
• Example: What is an analogy that represents the Law of Conservation of Matter?
• Have students find an article that relates to a current topic. Students should attach article, summarize it, explain how it connects to class, and write one curiosity question.
• Have students find an interesting video that relates to content learned in class. Students have to summarize what the video shows and why they chose it. Students have to watch two other videos and reply to the student who posted their favorite video stating why they like this video the best.

Things I’ve learned:

• Have a due date for initial responses and a second later due date for all responses.
• SHOW students how to post and respond to each other. Also show how to view the rubric. 
•  Here is video of me explaining this to my students.


• Here is video about posting, responding, and viewing the rubric. 
• Be specific about what you expect them to include in their initial posts and responses - otherwise (at least with 8th graders) you get very general comments.

Now, how do you set up a Canvas discussion? See steps below.

1. Click Discussions from your course homepage. (Your homepage might look different than mine.) 
2. Click “+Discussion”
   
3. Type in a Discussion Title and directions for students.
   
4. Options (see picture above for where these are) - which I like to choose and why: 
• Select “Allow threaded replies.” This puts replies indented under initial posts, which keeps things a little organized. 
• Select “Users must post before seeing replies.” This means that students can’t see what others have written until they write and submit their own post first. 
• “Graded” depends on if you want to grade this or not. Grading discussed further below.
• “Allow liking” This is up to you. I have used it in the past and haven’t really noticed students using it. But that doesn’t mean they don’t - I just don’t look for it.  
5. Group Discussion - I like to separate my house into 10 random groups. (My house has about 105 students.) This allows students to interact with others who are not in their science class. I call this group “Discussion group.” You have to make these groups ahead of time. (See the little hand clicking on the group discussion and selecting a group in pics below.) 
6. If you selected that this is a graded assignment, you have grading options. Some grading options include: Complete/Incomplete - this is simply where you can look at each and mark them as complete without giving a grade. Points - you can attach a rubric for this. (those are the only two I really use).
7. Select a due date and date available. Adding a due date helps the assignment show up in the students “To Do.” Adding a date available prevents students from completing the assignment before you’d like them to. It also makes the discussion unavailable if you fill in the “until” portion. This is good if you want a hard deadline for the discussion.
8. Then click “Save” or “Save and Publish” depending on if you want the discussion published right away. Remember, if you have the “Available From” in the future, you don’t have to worry about students seeing the discussion before you want them to (or before it’s done). 
9. If you chose to have this discussion be graded by points, you have the option of adding a rubric. 
   
   
   

Rubric example: 

If you are using a rubric, below is how I grade students on their replies to other students. This includes a little additional credit where students could earn above a 100% in the “exceeds” expectations. Or you could have this be an A+ versus an A. 

• Exceeds expectations: Student hits all "meets expectations" guidelines. Student goes ABOVE AND BEYOND by bringing in new ideas from CITED resources(Articles or videos from the web) and relates the resource to the discussion. 
• Meets expectations: Student responds to one other student thoughtfully. Student shows knowledge of content. Student asks a question, brings in new ideas, or challenges an idea someone has. If critiques other student, includes specific corrections that should be made. 
• Mostly meets expectations: Student responds to one other student and response shows knowledge of content. In this response, the student asks a question, brings in new ideas, or challenges an idea someone has. Response includes some vagueness or lack of completeness. 
• Somewhat meets expectations: Student responds to one other student. Responses are a bit lacking in thought or content. Response is vague and do not keep the discussion moving. Approaches expectations: Student responds to one other student. Response is minimal, such as "I agree." 
• Does not meet expectations: Student does not respond to any other students by the deadline.

By Lisa Camponeschi, Science Teacher at Pilgrim Park Middle School