Accountable Talk Resource Sheet Expressing an Opinion/ Predicting I think/believe that... I guess/predict/imagine that... It seems to me that... Based on..., I infer that... In my opinion... Making Observations What I noticed was When I saw/heard it made me think Asking for Clarification Paraphrasing Could you tell me an example of that? So you are saying that... Will you explain that again? In other words, you think... I have a question about What I hear you saying is...am I understanding correctly? I m not sure what your thinking was here, can you explain? Asking for a Response, Acknowledging Ideas What do you think? My idea is similar to/related to We haven t heard from you yet. s idea. I agree with that... My idea builds upon s idea. Reporting a Partner s Idea Reporting a Group s Idea indicated that... We decided/agreed that... pointed out to me that... We concluded that... Our group sees it differently. concluded that... We had a different approach. Disagreeing Offering a Suggestion I don t agree with you because... Maybe we could... instead. Would that be OK with you? I got a different answer than you. What if we... I see it another way. Here s what I was thinking.
Affirming Holding the Floor (When you are not finished talking) That s an interesting idea. As I was saying,... I hadn t thought of that. If I could finish my thought... I see what you mean. What I was trying to say was... I d like to complete my thoughts and then we ll turn to you. Acknowledging Other People s Ideas My idea is like s idea. My idea is the same as s. Expressing Agreement & Building Upon an Idea: My idea is similar to/related to s idea. My idea builds upon s idea. I agree with s perspective. I also think that... As already pointed out, it seems like... already mentioned..., but I would like to add that... Expressing Polite Disagreement & Providing Reasons: I don t entirely agree with that... My opinion/experience/perspective is different than s. My idea is slightly different than s. Questions to ask someone who is not using Accountable Talk: Can you give examples? Can you explain what you mean? What evidence do you have to support your answer? Is there any evidence that would make you think that someone else s opinion, who doesn t agree with you, could also be correct? Accountable Talk Sentence Starters for Every Situation
Language objective What is it? What does it sound like? To instruct To inquire To test Giving directions Asking questions Deciding if something makes sense "The first step is " "Next " "The last part is " Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? "What do you think?" "I still have a question about " "What I learned is " To describe Telling about something Use descriptive words and details To compare and contrast To explain To analyze To hypothesize To deduce To evaluate Showing how two things are alike and different Giving examples Discussing the parts of a bigger idea Making a prediction based on what is known Drawing a conclusion or arriving at an answer Judging something "Here is something they both have in common " "These are different from each other because " "This is an example of " "This is important because " "The parts of this include " "We can make a diagram of this." "I can predict that " "I believe that will happen because " "What might happen if?" "The answer is because " "I agree with this because " "I disagree because " "I recommend that " "A better solution would be " "The factors that are most important are " Accountable Talk Sentence Starters Making a Comment:
That is a good idea That is confusing I disagree with Clarifying Something: Now I understand No, I think it means I agree with At first I thought, but now I think What I hear you saying is I don t understand, but I do understand Asking a Question: What did you mean when you said? Do you think that? Why do you think that way? What led you to that answer? Making a Connection: This reminds me of This is like when This is like, but different because My Response When I am confused When I disagree When I have a question When my group is off task
I discovered that I was confused I agree I wonder Let s get this work done and then we can talk about that. I noticed that So you are saying I disagree Why do you think that? I think that sounds like fun, but we need to finish this first. This reminds me of I am not sure what that means. I respect your perspective, but I see it differently Can you tell me more about that? We have all this work to do. Let s get this finished. I predict that I am not clear about My experience is different. For example Why do you feel that way? I like that Could you explain that differently? Can you show me where you found that information? I didn t like In my opinion