The talk move that stood out the most to me was asking a student to repeat another student’s idea. The reason that this initially jumped out at me is become I’ve seen this utilized in my classroom. However, the way my CT uses this talk move is not the way I envision its use. She is an excellent classroom manager, and this talk move is used primarily as exactly that: a management tool. She will see a student who isn’t participating or paying attention and then, after another student has spoken an idea, will ask the spacey student to repeat the latter’s comment (sorry that was confusing, but I think you know what I mean). This usually leads to the kid getting embarrassed and being unable to proffer an answer. This does get them paying attention though.
I see this move used differently, more like how the authors envision its use. I can especially see myself using this in math, but I think it’s effective in all subjects. Paired with the use of the smart board, which makes students loooove to share their ideas, having another student come up to explain in their own words another’s idea becomes a powerful tool. Like the authors say, often a great idea can be lost on some if the language to explain that idea isn’t clear, but it only takes one student who understood the idea, with the ability to articulate it, to make it known to all.
Dan-
ReplyDeleteWhat a great first blog entry! The time and effort you put into it really shines through.
In all honestly, I think you actually cleared this strategy up for me–you revoiced it, if you will. I was initially turned off from this strategy when I first read the chapter. I saw it as a management tool, pretty much just as how your CT uses it. I don’t particularly like that because I don’t like the idea of publicly humiliating or punishing a child. I don’t think that calling a child out for not paying attention is going to inspire them to join the conversation and volunteer. If anything, I think it would cause them to be even more withdrawn. It was nice to read your interpretation of the strategy. I see now that it could almost be used similarly to Revoiceing, only this would be student revoiceing. Oftentimes students can explain ideas to each other better than we can so we should use that to our advantage. Now that I have a better idea of the strategy and the multiple ways it can be used, I am more open to trying it out in my classroom.
Amy
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI like the way you talked about seeing the particular talk move being used in a different way than your teacher. Although I can understand why your CT uses the move the way she does, I think you are really on to a great idea. Using the smart board to share student ideas seems like an awesome way to get students involved. Like you said, having a student come up to the board and sharing another students’ idea in their own words is an excellent way to practice the talk move. In my classroom, my CT uses the talk move as a behavior management tool to keep students on track. Similar to what your CT does, mine will ask students who are not paying attention or continually talking to repeat her instructions or the ideas of another student. I have seen this to be successful in that it gets those students to pay attention because they are embarrassed. However, like you mentioned, I think the talk move can be used as a more powerful tool in the classroom. I can picture students doing some research on a certain mammal in science and sharing what they learned with a partner. It would then be the partners responsibility to come up to the doc. camera or smart board and share some of their partner’s ideas. I think this would be both an interesting and fun way to engage in this talk move through science.
Great first blog!
-Kendall