The Importance Of Talk On The Classroom

Learning provision for literacy development is important for pupils for several reasons. When pupils are developing their language skills they are learning to communicate with others in a variety of ways through speaking reading and writing. The three areas of language interact with each other to promote the child’s self expression and imagination. Children need to be given opportunity’s to use and extend their language in all subject areas so they can develop higher level thinking. [ Louise burnham, Brenda Baker,2010,pg206]

He states that “in addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired a specific lexis” (Swales). While I was observing Mrs. Lechlitner’s class I was instructed to take very detailed notes. After thoroughly reading through those and Ms. Tibbets’ interview answers, I still was not able to come to a concrete determination that teachers have a specific lexis. While they may not use a specific set of words, in an elementary school you can not speak like you would in a high school. I did external research finding that teachers “use a lot of procedural and control talk…because he or she introduces new curriculum topics”; however, I was still unable to find anything that led me to believe my chosen discourse community participated in a specific lexis (Seifert). Mrs. Lechlitner tended to use a different tone with her students versus with her peers and Ms. Tibbets stated in her interview that when speaking to students you talk in a way that you would not to your coworkers. Even though I was not able to find specific words or phrases that these James Bowie teachers use, I did conclude that they spoke in a “child talk” when they were referring to their students. Since a specific lexis was not found, I brainstormed a couple different ways teachers communicate with each other that is special to their community. I found that at James Bowie lesson planning and using it as a reference during

For the past twelve years, COM 434 Radio/TV Practicum has gone through many changes, but the learning that goes on in the classroom and in the television studio remains the same. The Calumet Roundtable is a unique class, giving students a real world experience in the field of television production. The organizational communication of this course has shifted throughout the semester each teaching individuals various lessons: having inadequate note for your superior or talent is going to affect the outcome; hiding information from your supervisors is never a beneficial thing because it reflects negatively on them; abusing your power is unethical for personal gain; and every leader has different personality and unique managing styles. Considering

As a student experiencing formal education for over 15 years, writing essays, research papers and narrative stories presents itself as nothing new. Every student has a specific writing method ingrained in his or her brain and after years of practice, very little thought goes into creating a formal literary piece. The Lunsford humanizes the methodology of producing quality writing and it characterizes a piece of writing into something more than just a class assignment. Rhetorical situations delve into the complexity of communication through writing. Surrounding the context of a piece of writing there is a topic that needs to be clearly stated, an opinion to be portrayed, and an audience to be thought about. An appropriate topic for a writer to elaborate on is one that either puzzles or interests them. This allows the writer to be engaged in his or her writing and provide a method of effective communication. The opinion on the topic allows the writer to be individual and portray the

Introduction The first two chapters in Jane Vella’s On Teaching and Learning stress very vital ingredients that make dialogue education valuable. Chapter one discusses the efficiency of using structure with learners, and how it impacts everyone within the group. Structure is the backbone of dialogue education (Vella, 2008). Vella gives wonderful examples of how one goes about structuring the learning experience.

This particular book How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish is a great book for parents and teachers to read to help develop good communication skills with children.

In terms of education, talk can be defined as everyday uses of spoken language and it refers to the act of both speaking and listening (Bearne, 1998). (Mercer, 1995)categorised talk in three ways; cumulative, disputational and exploratory. Cumulative talk is when pupils work together in pairs to gain a shared knowledge about a subject, disputational talk is mostly short controversial utterances in the form of a debate and exploratory helps people work together by using each other’s ideas critically. Mercer’s three categories of talk are examples of the types of talk that can be found in the classroom environment. This essay will consider will examine the importance of the talk in the classroom and the challenges of it, with specific reference to storytelling.

Teachers take on the role of learner as well as instructor and are there to guide the discussion towards learning objectives without just forcing their point of view on students. Another very important part from Vygotsky’s work is the concept of a student’s zone of proximal development (ZPD). Vygotsky (as cited by Eggen & Kauchak, 2011) described it as “the distance between the actual development level…and the level of potential development…under adult guidance…or more capable peers” Once a student is within their ZPD, they can vastly benefit from ‘scaffolding’, this is assistance from either the teacher or from peers in a collaborative group to achieve a level that they would be unable to do independently (Eggen & Kauchak, 2011). This scaffolding can take many forms, using prompts and cues, asking pertinent questions, the most important point is not to do the work for the student but to guide in the right direction.

Dialogic strategies are gaining growing support as an alternative to the typical monologic approach to classroom discussions (Corcoran & Silander, 2009). A monologic approach is when the teacher asks a question, a student responds, and the teacher evaluates the student’s response. In a dialogic approach, there is a discussion facilitated by the teacher, that leads students to developing an understanding of the text they are engaging with, or an understanding of the content they are discussing (Corcoran & Silander, 2009). When students engage in dialogue they are collaborating with their peers to construct an understanding of the text, and they are utilizing their own prior knowledge, to make meaning of a text (Lightner

Comprehension skills are problematic but they have “advanced word knowledge” and recall. They have no awareness of others when socialising and may have problems with others. Students can be distant with “specialised interests” which are obsessive. Teachers provide “curriculums” to meet needs through “individualised learning plans.” Teachers present language based experiences such as “fact finding missions’ to build interaction skills. “Speech pathologists” and “school psychologist” can assist teachers and allow parents to come in and assist. Teachers present “predictable routines”, clear commands and tutelage. Teachers, need to highlight emotions and all students how to interact with one

In 2005 at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Louisville, Ky I walked into the Behavioral Disorder classroom headed up by Mr. Miracle. He was an attractive older man with gray temples and salt pepper strands throughout his fully filled head. He had a smile that was tired but genuine and Paul Newman blue eyes that shined. He had been a Special Education teacher for over 20 years and he was exhausted. His disposition convinced me that working with special needs children was not going to a long-term plan if I wanted any sort of happily ever after. The classroom consisted of seven students, who were the picture of diversity via race, socioeconomics and cognitive ability. Their diagnosis ranged from conduct disorder to autism spectrum disorder.

His work highlights the importance of social background and context to learning through talk and the value of teamwork within the classroom, to create a shared experience of learning. Through talk and thinking he categorised three differing models of speaking and thinking: disputational talk, cumulative talk and exploratory

Oct. 21, 1p.m. Communication 110 class in the regular classroom in Rhyne building. Tables set in one big circle, some curtains are lowered and the temperature in the room is warm enough to wear a t-shirt. All students are seated and ready to explore the beauty of being a journalist. But something unexpected happened. White male about 40 years old and 5 feet 8 inches tall walked into the classroom. Freely and slightly swaying he approached the table in the middle of the room. His outfit is more than extravagant. Looking like Elvis Presley the man wears white bodysuit that reflects light showing glare. The suit sits quite tight. You can tell it by looking at his jeans that’s showing under the white pants, lover that the ankles. The suit has

I did this so I could get a better handle on how the conversation flowed, if there were long pauses, and if the students seemed confused during the conversations. From here I began to mark the paper with a T or an S so that I could easily point out how many times the teacher and student took turns speaking. This gave me a baseline to begin analyzing the flow of the conversation. I referred back to my lesson 11 power point notes to connect the information I found in the video to what I have learned. While browsing through the power point slides I came across a term that correctly fit the pattern that I found in the transcript. The word was talk management, preferably IRF that stands for initiation-response feedback. This is when the teacher talks, then the student, and then the teacher responds to the answer and gives feedback. This is used in most classrooms and usually leaves no room for student to express views (Lightbown & Spada (2006). Once I figured out one form of communication I dug deeper and analyzed how the teacher was posing her questions during these discussions. I soon realized that the pattern of questions were developed in a display and opened manner. A display question is when “teachers ask questions that they know the answers to so that learners can display their knowledge of the language (or lack of it)” (Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003) Beyond Methods) an open question cannot be answered with a simple yes or no question. It is a type of

On the other hand, when children are asked to discuss in pairs or groups they might discuss something which is not related to what they are learning (Coles and Mcgrath, 2011). Also, certain children may dominate the conversation leading to other children being less involved or completely withdrawn from the discussion. To prevent this from happening children should be taught to use exploratory talk (critical but constructive engagement with each other’s ideas) as a problem – solving and learning tool. Hence, there will be an improvement to group work which in the end will benefit individual learning outcomes (Dawes, Littleton, Mercer, Wegerif and Warwick, 2012). Whereas, teachers may cut opportunities for discussion short due to time related pressures, including increasing demand to cover curriculum content, meet standards, plan and implement interventions. This results in teachers often taking control of discussion. Thus, opportunities for students to engage in meaningful and extended activities that require them to think, question, reflect, and respond can be limited. Relative absence of discussion and real talk present missed opportunities for both students and teachers. This includes promoting engagement, learning and informing teaching. These challenges can be overcome by carefully planning discussion times in lessons to motivate students in thinking and learning.