Following an implementation of the 5 Great Pillars of Talk, this is a strategy that I use for Talk exercises throughout the year to help students have more balanced and beneficial conversations. The end goal is for students to build off of what others' say, rather than simply inserting 'loose' comments that are not tied to ideas pursued by other members. 

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Video exemplar 

To introduce the idea of 'building' off of each others' comments, I show students two short excerpts of a 4th Grade Lit Circle discussion (from 0:24 to 1:34 and from 2:07 to 4:42). This video was chosen specifically to show that students of all ages are capable of well-built discussion. In the course of our viewing, I may ask that students take note of 'positive' and 'negative' aspects of the discussion as well as specific moments where the students successfully build off of what someone else has said. Following our viewing, we will practice building off of others' comments as a class using an easy-to-discuss question or topic (for example, 'are cats better than dogs?'). 

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Responding to film with the building approach 

Often, I will ask that students use the building approach when answering guiding questions about a film they have recently watched 'as a text'. I have found that this process works well since students are often more willing and able to discuss a visual text over a textual one. Some of my favourite films for students to watch are Nightcrawler, '71, Enemy and Brooklyn. 

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