Harnessing the Power of Conversation: Using Purposeful Talk to Increase Comprehension

Presented by Mindi Rench, Literacy Coach, Northbrook Jr. High

Find this presentation online at http://slideshare.net/mindi_r

Who informs and inspires our thinking?

Stephanie HarveyEllin Oliver Keene

What words come to mind when you hear the word “adolescent”?

Adolescents are social beings.

For teens, peer relationships are of utmost importance.

Capitalizing on that need to talk to others, coupled with a strong classroom learning community, creates the perfect conditions for deeper learning.

Encouraging conversation increases agency.

Peter Johnston reminds us that when we regularly give students time to talk and collaborate, we help them develop a sense of agency as readers and writers.

Teachers must encourage not only the sharing of ideas (product) but also discussion of HOW those ideas came about (process).

What is “purposeful talk”?

Classroom conversations are purposeful when participants are engaged in talk about the content at hand. Types of talk: questioning, activating schema, reflecting, reporting, feedback, and discussing (to name a few)

Fisher, Frye, & Rothenberg. Content Area Conversations, 2008

We are smarter together.

Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels said it best: “The best way to understand the world we live in is to be alert to it — to read about it, to listen, to view, and then TALK about it. Teaching kids to think coupled with rich talk about text makes all the difference. Two heads are better than one, four better than three, and so on.”

School should not be a place for young people to go and watch old people work.

Students remember more over a longer period of time when they are given opportunities to work together to generate knowledge as opposed to being TOLD information and expected to regurgitate it for a test.

Collaborative groups give students this opportunity.

The person doing the talking is the person doing the thinking.

According to Fisher & Frye in the November 2014 issue of EdLeadership, “It matters who’s talking in class because the amount of talk that students do is correlated with their achievement.”

One study cited in the article notes, “in high-achieving classrooms, teachers talked 55% of the time; but in classrooms in which students were identified as low-achieving, teacher talk consumed 80% of the instructional minutes.”

Talk about real world skills!

When we think about the jobs of the future, we know kids will need to be:

Strategic Thinkers

Good collaborators

Excellent problem solvers

Effective communicators

But most of all, they will need to be curious

So why are some teachers afraid to let kids engage in purposeful

talk?

It doesn’t happen by accident.

In Comprehension and Collaboration, Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels point out that teachers need to explicitly teach and model small group collaboration skills:

1. Be responsible to the group

2. Listen actively 3. Speak up 4. Share the air and

encourage others

5. Support your views and findings 6. Show tolerance and respect 7. Reflect and correct.

Fisher and Frye suggest:

ask students to complete tasks that are both complex enough to offer a challenge and that are relevant to students’ lives;

model the behaviors you expect to see in your students;

teach students to be argumentative, not just to argue, offering scaffolds and supports as the students learn;

use the right size groups - they suggest 2-5 students.

What We’ve Learned So Far

Time

It takes time to set things up and teach the collaborative skills…

BUT the investment is worth it!

Asking Questions

It’s helpful when the tasks are introduced orally and with visual backup at the tables for reference.

Asking the “right” question matters!

Most challenging aspects (from students):

Sharing air time (the over and under talkers) Keeping an open mind about other people’s ideas and points of view Agree to disagree Depth of conversation - keeping it going Staying on topic

!

“I think that talking to my peers enhances my learning and helps me become more

successful because they can give us different feedback then other people such as parents, or teachers. They can bounce back ideas

that may be very helpful to us.”

Benefits (from students):

!

“Getting to talk to peers helps because they can make it more fun and engaging.”

“When you talk to other peers at your table, you gather more ideas that can expand your own. Also, you can understand more by having someone else explain it to you.”

“It can help me figure things out if I’m confused, and I can share something if I need/want to.”

“You can bounce ideas off of them in a safe and relaxed environment. You can learn from other and teach others. You can think freely without it being final.”

“They tell me things I might have never thought of on my own.”

!

“Talking to your peers helps you to enhance your thinking. Listening to other peoples’ opinions helps you add on to and deepen yours.”

“When someone in my group says something that I was not thinking it makes my brain think about it more.”

Questions?

For more information:

Fisher, Doug and Frye, Nancy. “Speaking Volumes” Ed Leadership, November 2014.

Fisher, Doug, Frye, Nancy, and Rothenberg, Carol. Content Area Conversations. ASCD, 2008.

Harvey, Stephanie and Daniels, Harvey. Comprehension and Collaboration. Heinemann, 2009.

Johnston, Peter. Choice Words. Stenhouse, 2004.

Keene, Ellin. Talk About Understanding. Heinemann, 2012.

Contact Information

Mindi Rench, Literacy Coach Northbrook Junior High School

mrench@northbrook28.net on Twitter: @mindi_r