Primarily, I see Learning to Talk by Talking as a lens in which all learning needs to take place. Students’ having rich dialogue and discussion around the ideas they find interesting is essential in developing passionate learners who have a depth and breadth of language, literacy and learning skills. Deeper understanding of our world though language requires critical and analytical thinking. Talk enhances our ability to understand the world around us.

A few strategies from Dr Snow that I will use in my practice as I move ahead:

• Schedule student debate regularly.
• Use WordGeneration.com resources for quality open debatable topics and supporting materials.
• Engage in different debate models, including a switch in position.
• Being intentional about listening to students during the planning stages of units of inquiry to find out how interests can drive the content for learning

TASK ACTIVITY

• Small-group debates with assigned positions
• Partner debates with position switch

Describe what happened. How did you apply these strategies (a full class period or 10 minutes)? How did the students respond? Did anything surprise you? Was there anything you would change when applying this strategy again?

I had a partner debate with two Year 4 (Grade 3) students. The question, “Which of you has written about the most interesting animal in your list arctic?.” They each shared their thinking for 2.5mins then switched for the second round. Ida (Finnish speaker) debated for lions. YoYo (Mandarin speaker)  debated for cheetahs. Both girls are from the same homeroom class and were new-to-English in August. They have made remarkable progress developing their English skills so far this year.

Interestingly, a calm came over both of the girls.  For the first round, they were both very respectful of each others’ ideas and listened attentively. They waited patiently for the timer to finish. The girls had their “published” list articles with them for support with specific details. When they switched, they had fun. Without much thought they helped each other by using their list articles for reference.

I was surprised. YoYo is usually quite excitable. However, she responded very well with a time limit and was patience to really challenge herself to communicate her ideas. She was even open to Ida’s help when they swapped roles.

I will adapt this strategy in a variety of ways with students in our next unit. I will be curious to see how students in pairs work together to agree on a position and hold it. I am also curious to see what students might come up with if they were asked to make their own script.

How can we use discussion and debate to better support English language learners and children with reading issues?

• Provide opportunities/for ELLs to have small group discussions with an intentional mix of students w/ native target language speakers, speakers who can bridge communication (in homeroom groups, mini catch lessons after class instruction and in small group meetings.

How can we help align teaching staff beliefs about the importance of oral language?

• Advocating and celebrating teachers’ use of speaking and listening strategies/routines/actions
• Providing “sound-bites” of information about the research associated with oral language value in deep reading comprehension
• Sharing ideas at staff meetings, teachers planning meetings, blog postings

Why isn’t this happening in schools more often?

• I speculate that curriculum overfilled with content may be a challenge if a school’s curriculum is not concept based content is best determined by theme of conceptual thinking which follow students’ interests.

​What are some practical tips to support English language learners and children with reading issues?

• Listen and share inner dialogue when reading to students
• Encourage students to listen to their inner thoughts while reading and record thinking in a variety of ways
• Provide students opportunities to talk about what they’re choice reading
• Read students things your interested in and wonder together —> follow up on your wondering at a later time
• Show students that reading is a tool which grows your brain for thinking —> show the science

How can school provide opportunities to align curriculum?

One way to provide opportunities for curriculum alignment throughout early years and elementary school is to facilitate vertical articulation and moderation protocols for teachers. With writing, for example, this could look like some teachers (across two or more grade levels) volunteering 3-5 anonymous samples of students’ writing which represent a range of students’ abilities. Working in teams, teachers can collaboratively moderate and share observations about the samples. This moderation and alignment of teachers’ understanding can be applied to a range of student learning

Another way to provide curriculum alignment could be to provide opportunities for teachers to observe and facilitate learning in neighbouring classes and year groups.

How would teachers & parents in socio-economically disadvantages communities be challenged?

I imagine that teachers and parents in socio-economically disadvantaged communities would be challenged by a range of family dynamics. It’s likely that time for engaging attention would be more limited. Family money issues also produce high levels of stress and strain in home environments. Some issues might included limited adult interest and engagement in children’s learning, fewer opportunities to travel and explore the wider world and diets with limited nutritional value. My suggestion

One way we can incorporate meaningful talk into our classrooms is by being more intentional about it. Visible thinking routines can be used when students need to think. They are suitable in a variety of learning context.

​Some examples include:

• Any Core Visible Thinking Routine
• What makes you say that?
• Think, Pair, Share
• I used to think… Not I think…
• Understanding Routines

Need more info? Ask me.

TASK TO APPLY:

• Be responsive to children’s communicative efforts-- even just babbling and pointing.
• Ask children open-ended, interesting, and discussable questions.

Describe what happened. How did you apply these strategies? How did the child or children respond? Did anything surprise you? Was there anything you would change when applying this strategy again?

I support literacy learning in Year 4 (Grade 3) at my school. Today, I facilitated a Speaking Group with a group of beginner and early intermediate English speakers. As we move towards a unit on expressing opinions, it was a great opportunity for open dialogue. We started off with a set of Would You Rather cards. They really enjoy these cards.

When one of the students pulled the card which read Would you rather ride a horse or ride a camel? Why? The students got so excited and engaged in a range of dialogue.

We talked all about what a camel was, what humps were, whether or not camels had one hump or two, why camels lived in the desert, why people usually ride horses, where in the world people ride camels, why Korean people don’t like camels and so so much more.

Needless to say ,it was a very successful learning experience for all. I wasn’t really surprised. I know well that this particular group of students really need speaking practice and thrive when animals are a topic of discussion. I will certainly be using these cards in future lessons.

More importantly, I will share/advocate for this learning experience with my co-teachers. I’ll  encourage the use of this resource (and approach) in the mainstream class. Because this group of students has had a chance to work out their thinking and build a better understand of the topic, they will be much more confident (and likely) to engage with their peers in a larger homeroom class group discussion context.

Focusing our teaching lens on growing knowledge through meaningful experiential learning engagements allows teachers to personalize teaching and the learning for students. When we listen to what our students have to say, we have the opportunity to talk with them and hear more about who they are as individuals and their unique experience in the world. Because learning experiences provide a rich multi-sensory context in our brains, we have our senses to draw on when making connections to ask other things.

​As a literacy support teacher I actively seek for opportunities to advocate for students’ talk-time in all areas of their learning so they can have more time to think and engage meaningfully with their peers' ideas and experiences.