These fourth grade students are new to the practice of APT. In this clip, you will see them debate the different perspectives around the question of whether school uniforms should be required. You’ll notice that while the teacher makes some facilitation moves, the students are in general oriented towards each other. Students are clearly listening to the arguments of their peers and are able to specifically name which of their peers have made the arguments. You’ll also see that they look directly at the peer they are addressing instead of at the teacher. The teacher provides some boundaries to their discussion by reminding them to utilize evidence from the work they have been doing to support their claims.

The teacher makes several moves including pressing on an argument a student just made so that others can expand on it and bringing in the relevant experience of their own school with the merger of a new school. Students are oriented towards each other; you can see they continue to explicitly name who they agree or disagree with and to track what their arguments are. Students also exercise patience as they allow their peers the time and space to make sense of their arguments in front of the group.