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FROM THOUGHT TO TALKPupil Talk Prompts for use with the Thinking Moves A to Z*

*Sutcliffe et al, DialogueWorks 2019

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Pupil Talk Prompts are intended to be displayed in classrooms for daily use by pupils, on the walls or on prompt cards.

Simpler prompts are towards the beginning of each list.

Examples are included for a few of the more challenging prompts.


Pupil Talk Prompts give confidence to join in enable more powerful, articulate

speech expand vocabulary impact on writing



A AHEAD (predict, aim) I think the next thing will be… I’m looking forward to… I hope that… My target is… Our goal is… We predict… My prediction is… Looking ahead… In the future… I expect… What we’re aiming for is… What I anticipate will happen is… I think it is inevitable that… The consequence of this is likely to be…




B BACK (remember, reflect) I remember… At the beginning of the lesson… Thinking again about… I discovered that… It was mentioned earlier that… I recall that… Reflecting on what… Historically… In the past… A turning point for me was… Let’s review… I recollect that… On second thoughts… _________ originated from…

Example: Complex societies originated from the development of agriculture.




C CONNECT (link, liken) This is a bit like… These are the same because… Connecting to what Toni said… This links to… My strategy is like yours because… That relates to… If we compare… Maya’s point is similar to… The relationship between this and _________ is… A good metaphor might be… A useful analogy would be… There is a correlation between…




D DIVIDE (separate, list) The odd one out is… I think that is different because… The opposite of this is… I would like to make a distinction between… In contrast… There are two ways of seeing this… I think there is an exception… Breaking this down, there are three elements: …




E EXPLAIN (say how, clarify) …because… I can say how it works… I can explain… The story is… The causes of this are… The effect of _________ is… My strategy was… Due to… The process is… The rule is… The law says… Her motive was… I think Max is saying… I think that what Ali means is… In other words… Let me put it in another way… I would like to clarify… I’m a bit confused about _________. Could you explain, please? Please would you define…? It depends what you mean by _________. Can you clarify? Please could you rephrase the question? Am I right in saying that you mean…? Can you elaborate?




F FORMULATE (suggest, propose) I have an idea… I suggest… What about…? Maybe… I am guessing that… I propose that… Let’s consider… I would like to add a new point… I have a proposition… My theory is that… My hypothesis is… Let’s start with a rough draft…




G GROUP (sort, class) I am sorting these into groups… I think this goes with… This one belongs with… I think it is possible to group this with… I am thinking we could sort these into… Another way to organise these would be… Perhaps we could use categories…? I think it would be helpful to label these… The criteria for this group would be… These have the same features/characteristics… What these have in common is… One way of classifying these phenomena is…




H HEADLINE (summarise, distil) The main point is… The most important point is… What we are really talking about is… In a few words… In simple terms… In summary… To summarise… In a nutshell… This boils down to… The essence of this is… A concise way of putting it is… To précis this…




I INFER (deduce, take from) We already know _________ , so… From the clues we can work out… If _________ , then… I can tell from this that… From looking at the clues we can figure out… I think that the facts point towards… There is evidence to suggest that… We know _________ , so we can assume… It follows that… Therefore, I conclude… The probability is… Inferring from… Since we already know _________ , we can deduce that… The implication of _________ is… If we assume _________ , that means… Interpreting the facts, we can determine… So, in view of the evidence… The evidence for _________ is convincing/compelling when you

consider… _________ is consistent with…




J JUSTIFY (give reason, argue) …because… My reason is… I think I am probably right because… I know my answer is correct because… I’m certain of this because… The reason _________ is true is… One reason this makes sense is… I can prove that… There is proof that… My reasoning is… I can justify my opinion… Please would you justify…? I definitely believe that _________ because… The idea that _________ makes perfect sense to me because… I am persuaded/convinced of this because… I’m confident in my position because… There are many arguments which verify this, for example… My justification/rationale for saying this is… That is a valid statement because… The grounds for this are… It is possible to justify… _________ can be justified…

Example: Theft can be justified in certain situations.

Note: the word ‘because’ can usually be substituted by ‘since’ or ‘as’, for example:I’m confident in my position, as I have seen many examples of




this before.I’m certain of this since we already know that no even numbers above 2 are prime.




K KEYWORD (highlight, pinpoint) For me, the key word is… The most important word is… The big ideas are… The first word that comes into my head is… The central concept is… The main themes are… The real issue is… The crux of the matter is… At the heart of this is… What is fundamental here is… The most significant words are…




L LOOK/LISTEN (notice, gather) I can see/hear/taste/smell/touch/feel… I feel… I noticed… I am noticing that… I am aware that… I have observed that… I sense that… My gut feeling is… My heart tells me… My intuition tells me… My perception is that… I am mindful of… I am conscious that… What I’m hearing is… The message I’m getting is… I am sensitive to the fact…

Examples:The message I’m getting from Great Expectations is that life for children was tough.I am sensitive to the fact that we’ve been talking about disability in a way that might be disrespectful.




M MAINTAIN (believe, affirm) I think that… It is my opinion that… I strongly believe… Personally, I think… I agree… I agree with Mo’s point about… Sara’s point about _________ was important because… I support the view that… My position is… I would assert that… I am convinced that… I maintain that… I maintain my position that… My values mean that… There is no doubt that… No one can deny that… We are claiming that… On principle, I would still claim that… Regardless of the popular view, I maintain that… I am committed to…

Example: I am committed to the principle of equality.




N NEGATE (disagree, oppose) This is wrong… This is incorrect… I have a different idea… I disagree… That’s a good point but… I know where you’re coming from but I have a different idea… I would like to challenge something that Nadia said… I would like to respectfully challenge… On the other hand… I oppose the idea that… I object to… A counter-example would be… I have a counter-argument… Contrary to what Dylan said, I think… That is a contradiction… We seem to be contradicting ourselves… I contest that… This negates the view that… I would like to refute/dispute/rebut… The antithesis of this is… I have a rebuttal…




O ORDER (sequence, arrange) Let’s do this first… I’ve got a plan… Let’s plan… First we should _________ , then we should… The next step is… A good method might be… If we think about this in steps… If we put this in order… The priority is… First things first… An alternative order would be… A logical sequence is… The correct procedure is… Let’s map this… My system is… Let’s be systematic about this… Let’s prioritise…

Example: Let’s prioritise first, before we get into the detail of the experiment.




P PICTURE (imagine, put yourself) Let’s pretend… I can see… I can imagine… I am imagining what it would be like to… Let’s imagine that… If I were… In my mind… My dream is… My vision is… Let’s try to picture the scene… I am trying to visualise… Looking at this from a different perspective, … If we put ourselves in the shoes of… I can empathise with…




Q QUESTION (ask, wonder) Where/when/what/which/who/why…? I wonder… What if…? Would you rather…? I am puzzled about… Could/should/would/might…? Which is more important…? Why is it that…? I am wondering if… Let’s investigate… Let’s research… Let’s inquire further into… It is possible that…? Might it be possible to…? The question is making me ask myself…?




R RESPOND (answer, reply) My answer is… You’ve made me think that… You’re making me wonder about… I’m not sure yet but my first thought is… I want to reply to Millie… Responding to… In response to… Answering Jack’s point, I would like to say… Sam’s point made me think… I would like to comment that… Having listened carefully, I would like to add/build on… My initial response is… My immediate reaction is… In relation to what has just been said, my view is… I would like to respond to something that was mentioned

earlier… I would like to give my reaction to what Kieran said… With regard to… I’m personally having quite an emotional reaction to this… A constructive comment about what you’ve said is…




S SIZE (estimate, quantify) How much? How many…? Let’s count… The biggest… The smallest… Most… Some… Some people think that… I think we should try to measure… I estimate that… If we try to calculate/work out… If we consider the amount… Perhaps we should try to be more accurate… The majority of people… A minority of… Only a fraction of… The figures say… Statistics show… Can you put a number on it? What proportion are we actually talking about?




T TEST (doubt, check) I’m not sure if… I doubt that… I don’t believe… I would like to check that… Let’s check… I’m not sure that makes sense… Shall we test whether…? Can we be certain that…? I’m uncertain about… I would like to challenge the statement that… Are we making an assumption that…? It is not necessarily the case that…? I doubt whether Angel is correct about… It’s possible we have an error in… Let’s check for bias… I’m sceptical about… This seems questionable/dubious/suspicious… I feel Tunde’s assertion is problematic… I have reservations about…




U USE (try out, apply) I can use this to… Shall we try out…? In real life… Let’s do an experiment… The purpose of this is… A use for this would be… A real-life application would be… So, what does that mean in reality? An action we could take is… Let’s put this into practice… Applying this to… A practical situation where this could be implemented is…




V VARY (change, alter) Shall we change…? You could swap… Let’s try this instead… What if…? A different way… Some people think that… We could adapt… Another way of thinking about it is… We’ve tried _________ but what about…? I am thinking there might be a different way of seeing this… It could be argued… An alternative would be… Taking a different perspective, … What if we modify…?




W WEIGH UP (decide, judge) I would rather… I am trying to decide… I have been thinking carefully and I have decided… If we look at both sides of the argument… For me, the strongest argument is… This is a difficult decision, but… I can see both sides of the argument, however… Having listened closely, I conclude that… Having considered the arguments carefully, I am forced to

conclude… There are lots of powerful arguments, but my own opinion is… Weighing up the evidence it seems that… Taking into account the pros and cons… On balance, I think… Let’s evaluate… The dilemma here is… On one hand we have _________ whilst on the other hand we

have… I am trying to be impartial… My considered opinion is…




X eXEMPLIFY (give example, illustrate) I’ve got an example… I would like to give a real-life example… We’ve all seen examples of… I think a better example is… One specific example of this is… For instance… Take, for example, … In my experience… If we consider the case of… A typical scenario would be… A counter-example would be… By way of illustration…




Y YIELD (accept, concede) I have changed my thinking… At first I thought _________ but now I think… I used to think _________ but now I think… I realise I was wrong earlier when I said… You have convinced me! Actually, that is a good point… Having heard… On second thoughts… I’m coming around to the idea that… I concede that… I’m prepared to concede that…




Z ZOOM (focus on, survey)Zoom in

If we look closely at… I would like to focus on… Let’s focus on… I would like to zoom in on the idea that… Examining this more closely… If we look specifically at… I would like to scrutinise… Let’s inspect _________ in more detail…

e.g. Let’s inspect Catherine of Aragon’s role in more detail.

Zoom out If I stand back I can see… The bigger picture is… If we take a step back… I think it’s important to consider the bigger picture… I’ll start with an overview… Can we generalise…? If we put this into perspective… Looking at this from a broader perspective…



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From thought to talK - dialogueworks.co.uk€¦ · Web viewNote: the word ‘because’ can usually be substituted by ‘since’ or ‘as’, for example: I’m confident in my