Guidelines for Student Discussion
- Do more than agree or disagree. Justify and support your position with evidence.
- Prepare before participating. Read the assignment or lesson material to familiarize yourself with the topic. Think through your position and supporting evidence.
- Respect others' opinions.
- Read before you send!
- Abide by Netiquette rules. Use proper grammar and punctuation.
- Avoid slang, profanity, or potentially offensive language.
- Be courteous when offering feedback to a fellow student.
- Be gracious when receiving feedback from another student.
- Use students' names when responding to their postings.
Student Starters
Agree
When you support or agree with what someone is saying, you may want to use these response starters:
- I agree with _____. I think his/her strongest point was ____ because ...
- I agree with _____. I would also like to add ...
- _____ makes an excellent point. I also believe ...
- The strongest evidence presented by ____ is the following ...
You may need to have something clarified that you "heard" another person say. Try using these starters:
- Am I understanding you to say _____?
- I am intrigued by your response; however I am not sure I understand what you mean by _____.
- I think I understand your point, but let me restate it just to be sure ...
Agree / Disagree
There are times when you may agree with only part of what someone is saying. You can use these starters to help you clarify what you agree with but also what you disagree with:
- ____ makes an excellent point when he/she stated _____; however, I disagree with _______ because ...
- I am in agreement with part of your posting. I support you on ____ but I feel differently about _____. Let me explain why ...
- I can only support part of your assertion here because ...
Disagree
It is all right to disagree, but be sure to point out why you do not see eye to eye:
- I understand what you are saying, but I disagree because ...
- You do make a good point; however, I think there is more evidence to support my point. Let me explain further ...
- Your argument is well stated, but there is a problem with your evidence. Let me explain ...
- I think we are going to have to agree to disagree here. I do not think I will convince you and you are not going to convince me, but I think we both stated our points well.
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