The Leaderless Discussion creates an opportunity for students to own and drive the direction of a conversation and important topics and concepts. This routine can be used:
To engage students in discussion about a topic or concept, driven by their own questions.
To explore thinking related to a provocation - text, video, artefact, image etc.
As a teacher to listen to and observe the ideas and concepts coming to the surface as students work to develop understanding.
In this routine, students are generally sharing their thinking at each step along the way before moving on to the next one. This allows the class to build on the group's thinking and often results in richer discussions. Allow time for the group to review the process and prompt, topic or question, discussing how their thinking developed during the routine.