What Do I Say Next? Using the Third Turn to Build Productive Instructional Discussions

Research has strongly supported the role of classroom talk as a valuable teaching and learning tool. Carefully crafted teacher–student discussions that encourage broad student participation and knowledge building correlate with increased knowledge generation and higher academic achievement. To better understand classroom talk as an instructional lever, researchers have identified a number of teacher talk moves associated with increased student participation, critical reasoning, and improved comprehension of texts and content. In particular, when teachers make use of the third turn in their talk with students, they create opportunities for more productive student interactions with content and one another. This article examines how teachers use the third turn to orchestrate productive discussions, using examples based on content analysis of teacher–student discussions in classroom settings.