Learning through Talk

Kay Hancock

Melanie Winthrop

LEARNING MEDIA

Workshop aims

• Raise awareness and familiarity with the content of Learning through Talk

• Demonstrate coherence between key professional resources

• Consider the implications for supporting students’ learning across the curriculum through teaching and use of oral language

Language for learning

What is the role of oral language in this lesson?

In particular, look for:

• What the teacher does

• What the students do

We use oral language to:

• convey information

• organise and plan

• build knowledge

• develop understandings

• express ideas …

AND …

• define our membership of social groups

• build relationships and manage social interactions

• express our identity

Vision

What we want for our young people

ConfidentPositive in their own identity

ConnectedAble to relate well to others

Effective users of communication tools

Actively involvedParticipants in a range of life contexts

Lifelong learnersActive seekers, users, and creators of knowledge

Key competencies

Thinking“Students … actively seek, use, and create knowledge.”

Using language, symbols, and text“making meaning of the codes in which knowledge is expressed.”

Managing self “students seeing themselves as capable learners … They know when to lead, when to follow, and when to act independently”

Relating to others“… interacting effectively with a diverse range of people in a variety of contexts … the ability to listen actively, recognise different points of view, negotiate, and share ideas”

Participating and contributing “ … includes a capacity to contribute appropriately as a group member, to make connections with others, and to create opportunities for others in the group”

Reading and speakingNEMP 2004

Vocabulary knowledge is essential to comprehension. Students would benefit from opportunities to develop and expand vocabulary in meaningful contexts.

Students’ abilities to elicit deeper information through explorative questioning requires them to attend carefully to available information … the development of speaking skills needs to be integrated with skills of listening, observation, and thoughtful interpretation.

Students need opportunities across a variety of contexts to develop the skills and confidence needed for voicing and justifying an opinion. They need to learn how to question and consider the opinions of others in appropriate ways.

What the teacher does

“It’s what teachers actually do, moment by moment

in their classrooms, that makes a difference to student

achievement.”

How students learn What teachers do What this looks like for the OL aspects of learning tasks

• imitate • model

• demonstrate

• are aware of students’ needs and the impact of their own use of OL

• deliberately model specific aspects of OL

• understand and help set learning goals

• help students to understand what they need to learn

• construct shared goals

• make the OL aspects of tasks explicit

• make connections • help students to see relationships between what they know and what they are learning

• help students to develop awareness of when to activate their prior knowledge

• monitor students to ensure they make connections

• support students to draw on appropriate OL strategies and processes

• raise students’ awareness of what they’re doing

• use prompts and questions

Instructional Strategies

Deliberate, goal-directed instruction by the teacher includes: • Modelling• Prompting• Questioning• Giving Feedback • Telling• Explaining • Directing

Chapter 4 (Learning Through Talk: MOE 2009)

Discussions

Teachers’ support students’ learning before and during discussions by:

• Teaching Protocols

• Allowing think time

• Scaffolding instruction

• Encouraging purposeful talk and learning

• Monitoring on task learning and talking

• Provide feedback

Learning through Talk, (Years 4-8) MOE 2009, Page 67

Learning through Talk (Years 1-3) MOE 2009 Page Page 67

Discussions

Explicit teaching helps students to:• Tune in• Take turns• Listen with intent• Remain on the topic• Value each other’s contribution• Negotiate meaning with each

other

Learning through Talk, Years 1-3, 4-8. MOE 2009 Page 67

Building conversationsLanguage used What are you doing as a

listener, thinker, and speaker?Why learners do this

Oh, yeah …

That’s what I thought, and …

Me too, because …

That’s just like …

I agree with you because …

Agreeing To support an idea

To give more evidence

To make the idea bigger and stronger

No, no …

Wait, but …

I don’t think …

But …

I disagree with you because …

Disagreeing To offer a different opinion

To clarify something the speaker misunderstood or did not hear

Giving Feedback

• Recapping - summarising, retracing, catch up

• Revoicing - interpreting and rephrasing

• Marking - responding to specific ideas

• Turning back - holding speakers accountable

Learning through Talk, (Years 4-8) MOE 2009 Page 55 Learning through Talk (Years 1-3) MOE 2009 Page 57

Page 55, Learning through Talk, MOE 2009

Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning:Developing mathematical discourse: a case study

Read the case study and discuss and respond to the following questions:

• What are the deliberate actions that the teacher uses to explicitly teach the discourse of mathematical argument?

• What was the impact of the teaching?

Learning through Talk (Years 4-8) MOE 2009 Page 70

Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning

• View the following clips.

• Identify how the teacher supports the students to clarify and build meaning through talk.

• Discuss in pairs or groups

The role of oral language in the standards

By the end of Year 6, students will draw on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes describe in the Literacy Learning Progressions to read, respond to, and think critically about a variety of texts in order to meet the reading demands across the curriculum at Level 3. They will answer questions and express opinions, and locate, compare and evaluate ideas and information across a small range of texts. (Draft Reading and Writing Standards: MOE, 2009)

The role of oral language in the standard

• Read the illustration for the reading standard at the end of Year 6.

• Identify the underpinning role of oral language in the reading behaviours.

• Discuss the teacher’s role in scaffolding the students’ oral language.

Big ideas• Oral language is more than just a strand of the English curriculum. It’s

more than speaking and listening. Oral language involves ways of being and thinking.

• Oral language is integral to all classroom interactions and to all learning.

• Teachers have a crucial role to play in supporting students’ learning and academic success.

• In order to become more proficient in oral language, students need many opportunities to talk.

• Many aspects of oral language benefit from explicit instruction.