It is truly inspiring to be in a classroom where students see themselves as writers. In this post, I want to describe some of the instructional moves that nurture a writing identity in our students.
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Change is a certainty in the field of education. Like all professionals, teachers are learners, striving to increase impact on student learning: as we know more, we do better. In a time of large system change, such as with a new curriculum, it is essential to focus on teacher practice. High quality instructional materials are key to student learning, and the teacher is the most important factor to student learning. Teachers are the people who nurture classroom community and student relationships in order to learn student’s strengths and fund of knowledge; teachers use this knowledge to provide high quality instructional practices to bring a curriculum to life for students.
In this post, I want to discuss feedback and how feedback is important for growth. I need to receive feedback from colleagues, students, and families in order to do better. I also need to self-reflect in order to provide myself feedback on what is working and what needs to change. Read more for suggestions on how to give feedback to students, self, and colleagues, in service to student growth.
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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.
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