A shift in knowing if we are correct and what to do if we need to revise our thinking!

This week we made a big shift in our classroom when we feel like we have completed our work.  We take our work to the rug and find a peer to discuss it with.  We go over our thinking and talk about/justify our thinking and learning.  If no one is available then the students read a book until someone is ready to discuss.  There are many skills we are working on in this process:  conversation skills, communicating our thinking and understanding in a clear manner, appropriately challenging our peers if we disagree and revising our thinking if needed.  We are in the very beginning stages but the students loved this shift in thinking and were very appropriate in their initial attempt.