During the years I had student-teachers, I would always ask them to note the “teacher moves” they saw me make, and we would discuss them when we debriefed.

This is the first post in a series in which educators will be sharing the best tool in their teacher toolbox. The solutions in this series might not be as simple as the ones I’ve been featuring in a multiyear series on quick classroom fixes, but they’re worth the effort.

My own included making quick apologies, depolarizing conflicts by acknowledging anything I might have done, dealing with classroom-management challenges privately instead of publicly, saying “thank you” often, praising students’ specific actions, and using humor related to the lesson. And those were just a few.

‘Academic Discourse’

Stephen Katzel is the author of Win Your First Year of Teaching Middle School: Strategies and Tools for Success and Win Your First Year in Teacher Leadership: A Toolkit for Team Leaders and Department Chairs.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of great teacher moves that elementary and secondary teachers can use daily to increase student engagement and learning in their classrooms. The single best “teacher move” I recommend is giving secondary students a question bank and elementary students sentence starters while implementing structured academic discourse in the classroom.

For those who do not know the difference between academic discourse and structured academic discourse, academic discourse occurs when two or more students engage with each other verbally on the academic content covered in class. Structured academic discourse involves setting parameters for the verbal discussion. Parameters can be as simple as having sentence starters or a question bank to help students engage in the academic conversation.

All teachers know one thing is true: Students like talking in class and love talking with a preferred peer. Giving students opportunities to verbally collaborate in class increases student engagement, which ideally increases student learning. Also ideally, an unintended and positive impact of structured student discourse is decreasing the amount of classroom-management issues related to students calling out or talking to peers.

Giving elementary students sentence starters while they are verbally engaging with peers will ideally help quieter students participate in the conversation and prevent them from getting away with providing one-word answers. Helping elementary students build their confidence speaking on academic topics will ideally increase their participation in class.

Giving secondary students with a question bank related to the academic topic also encourages them to gain confidence in speaking on academic content and ideally leads to a deeper understanding of that content as well. There are so many teachers who fear letting their students talk in class because they are worried about reengaging them and regaining their attention.

I feel that giving students the chance to talk during class does the opposite; it allows them to engage with their peers instead of sitting and listening for 45 minutes straight. When this occurs, students zone out and get bored. This also happens in many professional development sessions for adults! I think we all remember a recent professional development where we zoned out because the speaker talked too long.

In addition, sentence starters and question banks help English learners engage in classroom discussions with peers, build vocabulary, and gain confidence in speaking English. An easy win for teachers is translating the question banks or sentence starters into their students’ native language with the expectation that they will reply in English.

Overall, implementing structured academic discourse in the classroom will lead to higher student achievement across the board.

‘Can We Chat for a Second?’

Adrian Neibauer teaches the 5th grade in a suburban public school in Colorado and is the author of The Redress of Teaching.

I meet with my students one-on-one every day. Having individual conversations with them is more than just a “teacher move” or classroom-management tool. It is the single-most important thing I do as a classroom teacher. If our community and connection are the backbone of my classroom, these daily conversations and conferences are the lifeblood. I meet with students, both formally and informally, at least once every day because of itss importance. These can be quick check-ins (How was your soccer game yesterday?), redirections for misbehavior, or formal reading and writing conferences.

My students often hear, “Can we chat for a second?”. I will either kneel, pull up a stool, or step into the hallway with students. No matter where we talk, students see that I give them my full focus. Sometimes, I need to speak with a student about their disruptive behavior. In these conversations, I share what I am noticing or a frustration I am having, ask students if there is something happening that I am not aware of that is causing the misbehavior, and end with my expectation. I expect students to dialogue with me; sometimes, we agree, other times, we do not. But in the end, students can trust that I will never publicly shame or embarrass them.

Reading and writing conferences are more structured. I will often move throughout the classroom, stopping to ask students about the book they are reading. What are you picturing in your mind right now? What do you think is going to happen next? When we are setting reading goals, I will ask more formal questions such as: Can you tell me about the text so far?; What are the main ideas/themes? What do you feel confident about when reading? What do you think you need more practice with/on? These questions are designed to help students reflect on their books but more importantly on themselves as readers. I take a few notes but mainly listen.

One-on-one conversations are the best way to get to know my students. Sure, I could send out a survey, tally the results, and get a picture of them. It isn’t the same. The information that comes from surveys is data. What I gain from conversations with my students is more than data; it’s connection.

One-on-one conversations build meaningful relationships with my students. I learn about each of them, fully. I learn about them as readers and writers, but more importantly I learn about them as human beings. I learn about their proudest moments and their vulnerabilities. Every time I speak with a student, I strengthen our bond and better my chances of teaching each and every one. We build trust, sharing our humanity with each other, so that we both can grow as human beings. They grow as students; I grow as a teacher. We grow as a community of learners. One-one-one conversations are the single best “teacher move” I do.

Phone Home

Nawal Qarooni is a Jersey City-based educator, writer, New York University adjunct professor, and founder of NQC Literacy. She is the author of Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations: Elevating Home Experiences and Classroom Practices for Collective Care (2024):

The single best teacher move I do is to call caregivers often and first to give positive feedback and observations about my students—especially before any friction arises throughout the academic year. Not only does this build strong rapport and prove to families that I pay careful attention to all of my students, but it helps break down communication barriers so that I can learn quickly what is important to the family and what motivates the student most.

When we don’t do this and there are inevitable bumps in the road, initial points of contact become enmeshed in negativity. Families remember us as the teacher who complained about or got a child “in trouble,” and our relationships hinge on behavior and consequences instead of what we want instead: a true desire for a sense of belonging with the ongoing growth of each student.

Thanks to Stephen, Adrian, and Nawal for contributing their thoughts.

Responses today answered this question:

What is the single best “teacher move” you do? In other words, out of all the tools in your teacher toolbox, what is the best thing you do, why is it the best, and what happens as a result of your doing it?

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on X at @Larryferlazzo or on Bluesky at @larryferlazzo.bsky.social

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