Mr. Bosirepresents:

Classroom Talk:Engaging Pupils in Talk for successful

learning

People talk when they say things to one another or have conversation. You talk to someone when you discuss something with them. You say that people are talking if there is a lot of casual or careless discussion about something.

When do pupils talk? When do you talk? Who talks most?

Classroom talk takes place when pupils:•Answer your questions•Ask you and their classmates questions.•Answer questions asked by their classmates.•Participate in group discussion.

As a teacher you are an active participant in classroom talk when you:

•Ask questions

•Answer questions

•Explain

•Give instructions

Why is classroom talk important in children’s learning?

Children retain what they learn as follows:Hearing only: 20%Seeing only: 30%

Hearing and visual support: 50%Hearing, seeing and talking: 70%

Hearing, seeing, talking and doing: 90%

From the above we learn that active involvement of the pupils through additional materials being used,

practical work and discussion increases the amount of pupils can

remember.

Think of a class of 50 pupils in a lesson of 30 minutes and see how

many each child needs to talk.Each child gets 36 seconds.

The calculation is intended to show how in many of our classes pupils

are denied the chance to learn through participation in talk.

Types of classroom talk:

1.one-way-talk2.Two-way-talk3.Interactive

talk

when they are used:

To give instructions, or to explain something in your lesson

Talking to each other i.e. teacher-pupils

Pupils talk to each other.

How do I help my pupils develop

effective discussion skills?

Turn and Talk strategy is useful when lots of pupils have ideas to share. The teacher says: “Turn to your neighbor/partner and tell them what your thoughts are about….”

The teacher then asks one member of the pair to summarize the discussion they had. Or, when active listening skills are to be reinforced, the teacher might ask a member of the pair to relate what their partner said to them.

Journal Jot is a strategy teachers use when they want to give pupils an opportunity to collect and write their thoughts before sharing them out with the class. The teacher says: “Take a few minutes to write your thoughts about….”When pupils have completed their writing, the teacher asks them to share it with partners, small groups, or the whole class and invites pupils to respond to one another.

Value Line Up is a strategy used by teachers whenthey want pupils to appreciate the differing views people have around a variety of topics/issues. The teacher says: “I’d like you to form a line across the front of the classroom. If you strongly agree, stand

near this end of the line based on how strong your belief is. If you disagree, do the same at the opposite end of the line.” The teacher can then invite individuals share their view with the class and ask participants to change their location on the line as their views shift on this issue.Or, the teacher can “fold” the line in half, and invite participants to share their views with someone with an opposite view. This helps develop active listening skills.

Choose A Side similar to Value Line Up. But, in this case, the teacher simply asks pupils to choose a side of the room to sit on that coincides with their beliefs about a rigorous topic or problem. During the ensuing discussion, students are invited to move to the other side of the room if a point made during the discussion sways their view.

Pass the Hat is a strategy teachers use to encourage pupils who might otherwise be hesitant to ask questions they have about complex ideas to pose these to the class. The teacher says: “I’m passing a hat around the room. Place questions you would like the class to address in the hat.”The teacher then selects questions from the hat to use in launching and maintaining the discussion asking students for evidence from the rigorous text/problem to support their thinking.

Role Play is a way to provide practice for behaviors the teacher wants the class to engage in. Sometimes this is done “fishbowl” style with a group of pupils acting out a strategy, norm. or procedure in front of the class with the teacher stopping the action frequently to talk about what the class is seeing/hearing. At other times, the teacher might ask small groups or pairs to practice a behavior simultaneously, stopping along the way or debriefing afterwards to determine what worked/didn’t work and make adaptations as needed.

How can I make talk equitable in the classroom?

Not all pupils are comfortable sharing their ideas in a public forum. You need to decide if it’s okay for them to be engaged through just listening. They might later share their understandings one on one or in writing.

Some teachers…

*Call on pupils with hands up

*Pull sticks with names on

*Write names on a sheet of paper, as students raise hands, acknowledging with a nod that they wrote the name down. This frees the student to lower their hand and listen until the teacher calls on them. Students learn to jot ideas down so they don’t forget them. When called on, they say something like “I want to respond to what Carlos said a few minutes ago about ….” Or, “I was going to make a point about….. but Alex already did.”

Are there tools the pupils can use independently to

make talk equitable?

Some teachers:• Provide two sided chips for pupils to flip; green means “I have

something to contribute” and red means “I’m listening and processing what is being said”.

• Give students two-sided paddles to hold up with agree/disagree sides, smiley/confused faces, or question/connection for students to raise in indicating their participation.

• Use speaker props – a ball or microphone for the speaker to hold; once students are ready to begin the discussion, the group is called to order when the teacher takes out the “discussion prop.” Once the discussion begins, only the person with the prop may speak.  

How do I encourage pupils

to develop their ideas?

Prepare Ahead of Time:Developing open-ended, higher level questions before the discussion helps to develop critical thinking skills. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a great resource to learn how to write questions.

Assigning a reading, math problem, or science experiment before the discussion and telling the students they’ll be expected to share their under-standings with one another helps them come prepared with their ideas in their heads or jotted down . Learning how to “press” students to explain or develop their ideas helps to deepen their understanding.

Research shows a link between engaging pupils in talking about their learning

through classroom discussions and higher pupils achievement. Teachers can

impact pupils test scores while deepening

content knowledge.

Thank you for listening and

learning