ABC Discussion Routine for Better Classroom Talk

Renata Salas

One teaching method you can use tomorrow morning. And I mean literally tomorrow, first period. [excited] I was reading Topsy Page's blog on January 23rd, 2026—she posted this brilliant piece called "ABC of Elaboration" on topsypage.com—and it completely rewired how I thought about my classroom discussions. She lays out this incredibly simple framework called ABC, which stands for Agree, Build, Challenge.

Colin Whitfield

Agree, Build, Challenge. [thoughtfully] I like the simplicity of that. But Renata, how does that actually look when a kid is talking? What's the mechanism?

Renata Salas

So, instead of the usual hand-raising chaos, after one student shares an answer, the next student called on has to do one of three things: they have to Agree and explain why, Build by adding new evidence or an example, or respectfully Challenge with a different view. They can't just throw out a totally random new thought. They are anchored to what was just said.

Colin Whitfield

That's brilliant because it directly addresses what Doug Lemov talks about in *Teach Like a Champion*. [matter-of-fact] He describes the typical classroom discussion as a "ping-pong match." The teacher asks a question, Student A answers. Teacher responds, asks another question, Student B answers. It's always a rally between the teacher and one individual student, which means the other twenty-eight kids in the room can completely check out. They're just spectators. ABC shifts the cognitive load. Now, every student has to listen actively because they might have to build on or challenge the last thing uttered.

Renata Salas

Exactly! They can't just rehearse their own answer in their head while waiting to be called on. They actually have to process their peer's argument. [reflective] I was looking at Alex Quigley's take on this too—on his site, alexquigley.co.uk, in an article called "Disciplined Discussion as Easy as ABC." He calls it "carefully constructed and scaffolded student talk, with high quality feedback." He argues that without this scaffolding, classroom talk just dissolves into noise. It keeps them tied to the academic content, not just sharing personal anecdotes.

Colin Whitfield

And let's be honest, we desperately need that structure. [serious] Edutopia recently reported on observational data across thousands of classrooms, and the average school day contains only about two minutes of genuinely high-quality discussion. Two minutes. So the issue isn't that we need *more* talk—it's that we need better designed structures for the talk we're already trying to have.

Renata Salas

Right, so let's talk about how you actually run this tomorrow in, say, a real third-period middle school ELA class. [warmly] Imagine we're reading *The Giver*. I pose one rich, open-ended question: "Is Jonas's community actually safe, or is it just a prison?" Student 1 says, "It's safe because nobody gets hurt or starved." Now, instead of me saying "Good job" and asking someone else, I look at the class and deliver the line you want to write down: "Student 2, do you want to Agree, Build, or Challenge?"

Colin Whitfield

[chuckles] I love that. You're entirely removing yourself from the center of the web. So Student 2 has to pick a lane.

Renata Salas

Yes! Student 2 might say, "I want to build on that. They are safe from hunger, but they also don't have choices, like choosing their own jobs." Then, before I speak, Student 3 jumps in: "I want to challenge Student 2, because having your job chosen for you actually prevents the anxiety of failing." Then Student 4: "I agree with Student 3 because..." You let three, four, five rounds of this run before you, the teacher, step in to steer the chain if it drifts or needs tightening.

Colin Whitfield

But to make that work, they need the language, right? [measured] Especially the quieter kids or those who struggle with oral language. You can't just expect them to formulate these transitions on the fly.

Renata Salas

Oh, absolutely. You have to put the sentence stems on the board. Don't leave it to chance. I have these permanently on my side whiteboard: "I agree with [Name] because...", "I want to build on that, and...", and "I would challenge that because..." It's a physical tool, not just theory. [excited] Topsy Page shared this great elementary ELA example: after a short text, you ask the class which character is the most important. You let three students run the Agree, Build, Challenge cycle, and only *then* does the whole class vote. It turns a simple one-word opinion into a mini-debate using actual text evidence.

Colin Whitfield

It's gorgeous. And look, if teachers want a quick way to prep this for tomorrow, you can use AI to generate the prompts and stems in about ten seconds. [matter-of-fact] Here is a prompt you can use: "I teach [grade] [subject]. Tomorrow we are studying [topic]. Write one rich, debatable, open-ended question I can ask the class, plus six student sentence stems split into Agree, Build, and Challenge categories. Keep stems at a [grade level] reading level."

Renata Salas

That is a massive timesaver. It gives you the exact questions and the grade-appropriate language tools instantly. [hopeful] Try it tomorrow, third period. See if you can break that teacher-student ping-pong match.

Colin Whitfield

[warmly] Let us know how it goes. See you next time.

Renata Salas

Bye everyone!