Which practice is best for developing students' understanding of longer sentences and academic vocabulary during discussions?

Using restatement and open-ended questions to clarify students' remarks is effective in developing students' understanding of longer sentences and academic vocabulary during discussions for several reasons. Firstly, restatement allows the teacher or facilitator to rephrase students' contributions, which helps clarify complex ideas and reinforces understanding. This process encourages students to think critically about their own words and the thoughts of their peers, enabling deeper cognitive processing of the content.

Furthermore, open-ended questions prompt students to elaborate on their thoughts and engage in higher-order thinking. By encouraging them to explain their reasoning or provide examples, students are pushed to use academic vocabulary in context, facilitating both comprehension and usage in a meaningful way. This interactive dialogue promotes language development and helps students become more comfortable with complex sentence structures as they navigate discussions.

In contrast, other practices while valuable, may not offer the same depth of engagement necessary for understanding and utilizing longer sentences and academic vocabulary effectively. For instance, modeling contextual analysis with difficult sentences can help, but if students are not actively participating, they may not fully internalize the vocabulary. Posting definitions can provide helpful context, yet it does not involve interactive engagement that fosters practical application. Creating graphic organizers may help with organization and visual understanding, but it does not require the verbal articulation and