The productive hum of students engaged in talking and learning is like hearing a symphony, a favorite song. They are evidence of a teacher intentionally planning for and developing the expectations and strategies of effective talk with their students.
“Children’s speaking and listening lead the way for their reading and writing skills, and together these language skills are the primary tools of the mind for all future learning.” – Roskos, Tabors, & Lenhart, 2009
Increased effective discourse between students leads to deeper learning.
“According to John Hattie (2018), teachers can ask between 200 and 300 questions a day – whereas students typically ask clarification questions. Research also indicates that teachers should limit their speaking to 20-30% of the class time and the student talk time should be around 80%.” – Greenwood
According to Hattie’s meta-analysis, classroom discussion has an effect size of .82 which is more than twice the average growth in a year! When students talk together, their relationships strengthen, their oral language skills grow, they see each other’s strengths and feel an increasing sense of belonging, and engagement increases! Today I want to bring together some rich resources on classroom discourse, to support the ways that teachers scaffold increasingly complex student talk in their classrooms.
Feldman and others suggest that teachers should never go more than 10 minutes before offering students (or colleagues) a chance to process information. When the information is processed, EVERY single participant should be doing something (writing, talking, doing) that is tied to the Learning Target.
– Just like any teaching and learning, when teachers support kids with classroom discourse they gradually release by doing the following:
- Explain why the skill/strategy is important. This is most useful when a concise visual such as an anchor chart is provided and built upon over time.
- Model effective talk/conversation and active listening. Conduct a class inquiry on discourse. Practice and discuss during Morning Meeting.
- Ask students what they saw and heard.
- Have the whole class practice the skill together and provide them with feedback.
- If you are asking kids to respond whole group, invite them to turn and talk or stop and jot their ideas first, to provide think time. Keep this time short.
- No hand raising! Hand raising implies that participation/engagement is a choice. We know that when people raise hands the same people dominate the conversation. Instead, make sure you call on all students over time to provide spaces for all of their voices, especially the kids who normally don’t get air time. Some useful techniques include:
- Fake random calling on a few students (pretend you are randomly calling on students when you are really being strategic about who you are calling on). You may call on students to build confidence and social capital. Call on students who have a contribution you want to be certain everyone hears/learns (key insight, common misunderstanding, etc.).
- Numbered Heads Together: In a group, assign each student a number so every group has a 1, 2, 3, and 4. After the group discusses, have the 1s, 2s, 3s, or 4s from each group share out to the whole group. By doing this, you ensure that all students are accountable to listen since they won’t know who you are going to call on.
- Then begin gradually releasing by having a group of four or partners practice. Be intentional who you assign to work together and save time by saying which partner goes first (Partner A/B, Peanut Butter/Jelly, Chips/Salsa, etc.). Circulate to listen to the groups, observe strengths and goals, uncover any misunderstandings, and offer feedback. You can videotape an effective group to use as a demo for the rest of the students. (I’ve also found that taping a group after I walk away and listening to it later offers an excellent way for me to assess the stickiness of my instruction.)
- Reinforce, practice, and go deeper over time. Conversations can get more complex over time if we spend time prioritizing feedback and demonstration around classroom talk.
- Monitor for engagement: All Means All (Feldman). This is huge: We need to value every voice in the classroom and let students know this. When we ask students to gather whole group, small group, or in partnerships, we expect all of them to participate. When we believe this, we communicate a belief that all students have much to offer. As Warm Demanders, we hold ourselves accountable for supporting students to have the tools and confidence to participate.
“A Warm Demander
holds high standards
and offers emotional support and instructional scaffolding
to learners for reaching the standards.” – Hammond
Some General Tips for Conversations:
- Ask open ended questions. Follow up with “how” or “why”.
- Provide think and wait time.
- Students and teachers ask questions. Especially students.
- There are times when capturing what students say in writing can be powerful, in order to model the writing and to note who said it. This is empowering for students and raises the social capital of students.
- Teach to build on, elaborate, dis/agree respectfully, and ask why.
- Give students a provocative question before they engage in a task so that they know what the conversation will be about after the task: As we read this text pay attention to how the characters show respect for each other and be thinking about how you can show respect for your classmates. We will discuss this after the read aloud.
- Encourage students to use a “public voice” that is heard by classmates.
- Add note taking to promote accountable listening (“Jot down/draw at least one idea from your classmates that is different from your idea.”).
Gestures / Body Language:
- Providing students with hand gestures increases participation, and offers the teacher a way to quickly glance around the room and assess what gestures/conversational strategies students are using as they converse.
- A thumbs up after wait time lets the teacher know when students have an idea and are ready to move on.
- Discuss and model the importance of body language. For example, leaning in shows that you are active listening and turning away shows you probably aren’t listening.
Sentence Stems / Word Banks:
- Sentence starters/stems can help focus attention on the priority content and provide the language support students need for academic conversations. They increase the quality and quantity of student talk, and support transfer of content.
- Model and provide sentence stems but be careful not to make conversations sound formulaic. There should be a natural/authentic back and forth, with increasingly precise language. Modeling for students and rephrasing their statements with more precise language will support this.
- Develop a Word Bank and add/delete words/phrases over time to support growing vocabulary and sentence complexity. Explicitly pre-teach key vocabulary.
- Some useful questions/stems for whole group/small group include:
- Whose idea is most like/different from yours?
- Who can rephrase/paraphrase/repeat that?
- Who can show the model __ used?
- What do you mean when you say ___? Will you explain that again?
- I have a question about __.
- I noticed __. Did you notice __?
- I think __ because __. What did you think?
- What do you think about __? Why do you think that? Can you explain that?
- This reminded me of __ because __.
- I was wondering __.
- I agree with you but I would like to add __.
- I disagree because __.
- Can you say more about that? Can you give us an example?
- My partner said __. My partner showed me/pointed out that __.
- So are you saying that __?
- Do you agree?
- We haven’t heard from you yet. Do you want to share? What are you thinking/what would you like to say?
- My idea is similar to __’s because __.
- I want to build on what __ said by adding __.
- We agreed/concluded/decided that __.
- I/we see it differently. We had a different approach.
- See Academic Conversation Sentence Frames for more information.
Some Strategies / Tools:
- Paraphrase: Instead of correcting student answers, paraphrase/repeating/extending students’ responses using language that is more precise. You said the lines went like rail road tracks. Are you saying they are parallel? Teach students to paraphrase each other. This would be a great Morning Meeting Activity!
- WIDA’s Doing and Talking Math and Science is an excellent source of videos, background information, and language stems for students and teachers.
- Teach students to capture ideas in a graphic organizer/post it notes prior to the conversation.
- Linking: Each student has a different piece of information that the group needs to be successful.
- Gap bridging: Each partner has a representation that isn’t visible to the other. Partner One shares information and Partner Two plots or represents the information. Repeat, with Partner Two sharing. Compare the representations.
- Jigsaw: Divide a text into four parts and have each group member read one of the parts. Each student will read and process their portion of the text with an alike group of students who also read that part. Then back together in original groups where each expert shares what they learned.
- Conga Line or Inside-Outside Circle
To conclude, I want to share what Fisher, Frey, and Rothenberg write as a reminder of the importance of oracy in classrooms:
“Oral language is the foundation of literacy, and as such, it requires focused attention in planning. Altering the ratio of teacher to student talk doesn’t just happen. Rather, it occurs through both believing in the importance of student talk and planning with a clear purpose and expectations.”
As teachers, we have to be more intentional in how we plan for and support conversations in our classroom. This is a huge equity move, and one that increases engagement, joy, and learning!
Resources:
Teacher Talk Versus Student Talk, Greenwood
The Importance of Oral Language for Literacy Success, Reeder and Baxa
Designing Mathematical Interactions for English Learners, Chu and Hamburger
Hattie Ranking
I Do. We Do. You Do., Two Writing Teachers
Kevin Feldman Trainings
Doing and Talking Math and Science, WIDA
Warm Demander, Hammond
5 Hand Signals, Edutopia
Why Talk is Important in Classrooms, Fisher, Frey, Rothenberg