I've been studying a little bit of Paulo Freire and critical pedagogy recently. (I emphasize the little because it can be dense reading and I can be a little dense myself.) But Freire talks about the banking notion of education. We often view our students as empty vessels that need to be filled up with as much knowledge as we can give them.
Probst also talks about this notion in his chapter in Adolescent Literacy. He quotes another author, Nystrand, who stated that "most schooling is organized, we found, for the plodding transmission o information through classroom recitation. Teachers talk and students listen. And the lower the track, we found, the more likely this is to be true."
How does talk work in your classroom? Who is doing the talking? Which, if any, of Probst's talk strategies are you willing to try in order to engage more students in talk? I have always enjoyed the Socratic seminar and have been met with success in the junior and senior level classrooms. But students have to be trained and the teacher has to be willing to listen. We have to remember that they are not empty vessels that come to us for fulfillment. They come with their own stories, connections, anecdotes, and questions. We have to open to stage for them to share themselves.
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This article was an eye opener for me. I agree with the fact that we are not using one of our students best skills. We all enjoy talking and so many times teachers struggle to have their students not talk in class. If we teach students how to communicate effectively we can engage them inthe lesson and keep them involved. I was never taught how to effectively communicate. I realize that it is not the teacher doing all the talking, but the students verbally reflecting and communicating with the other students in the room.
I think that Mrs. Griffin has started the process of effectively communicating by hosting the poetry jams and music jams. There need to be more verbally active communication in the classroom.
I think that it would be great to use the storytelling in the classroom. Students could write and share their own stories. Students could discuss the story afterwards and be able to ask the student author questions about how they came up with the story.
I agree with Ashley, we are not effectively using one of the students best skills. We know that they love to talk to each other. At my previous school we had professional development on "accountable talk" and how to get the students involved in talking about what they are learning about and expressing their thoughts. Over the years I seen that for the most part when the students are talking while they are doing their work, they are actually talking about the work! Of course, with a little bit of the other thrown in too!
I think that I am going to try "Finding the Poem." I know that I will change it up a bit to do different Phys SCi topics as a review for the EOC and the students will have to group the staements together.
I'm intrigued by the annotate text activity. Just not sure how to set it up in a subject that I'm not comfortable teaching and with extremely small classes. For me this article might have had more impact last semester when I had non-stop talkers.....this semester my classes are extremely low-keyed and one class has absolutely no talkers. They talk when I ask them personal questions one-on-one but when I ask them to work together they don't talk - not even social talking [the silence is almost uncomfortable].
I try to incorporate any way to get my students to talk about the work in my class. We do group discussions (which I am not included in but do listen to). We do written conversations (quite intersting). But, I've found that most of my students still do not actually discuss anything. They answer questions or prompts, but they don't go any further. They don't create legitimate questions of their own. When they have answered the question or prompt, they move on to discuss other subjects (lunch, dates, shopping, music) with all the enthusiasm I wish they would give to the assignment.
The activity I'm most interested in trying is the annotating the text. I've heard of this before, but I've never actually used it. I think this will be something I'll try with Animal Farm. Maybe we'll actually come up with interesting meat for thought, and I won't have to do ALL of the thinking or all of the talking.
Talk is a very important component of my classroom. Talk first starts with setting the classrom norm that no one can destructively critsize. Only constructive criticism is allowed.Talk is my classroom is very interactive. I deliver the unit and students actively participate in the unit discussions. Teacher and student are doing the talking.I like the storytelling, agenda setting,problem solving, brainstorming, and decision making strategies presented to assist students to engage in appropriate dialouge. I believe there is a need for guidance ---even in talking.There needs to be a defined purpose for the talking to get any result from the various comments within a discussion.Annotating the text caught my eye. It reminds me of "talking to the text". If a student is guided to to this when reading---they will probably use those same skills (questioning, pridicting, etc) when talking.. Forced freewriting is one I would like to try. After a SSR session my students are govenm an opportunity to reflect using given writing prompts. I am going to try the forced frewriting and compare the reflections.Language is so improtant and students must be able to effectively articulate to be successful. I am a biggie on articulation. It is a must. I stress that to my students over and over again. I often tell them when that foe is an enemy and four is the number. I stress to them the importantce of saying the endings of words. Articulation is a much as a skill as talking.Overall I feel talking at its best in the classroom is more successful whrn I student feels it is ok to make a mistake and that there input really matters.
Talk in my classrtoom is generally me to them and them to each other. I was discouraged in English IV at the end of first semester about our daily journal writing, it was pretty much a cast off exercise, a sentence or two will do, then talk. This semester I've instituted a "split sheet" version of journal writing (partly because writing on a third of the journal sheet looks less intimidating than a whole sheet of blank lines) where you draw a line about a third of the way in from the left margin and use this area as LIST: and the rest of the sheet as WRITE: Then, of course, we list 1 or 2 word answers to the prompt (ie. what occupation would you never want to have and why - LIST: garbage man, old age home nurse, TEACHER) I overhead the journal sheet, "split it," read the prompt then say, "gimme some." Usually a 2-3 second wait produces some answers, maybe it's just that 1 word answer but it at least opens the path for discussion. Once we've listed 5-8 occupations (or whatever the prompt calls for) they can use 1 or 2-3 words to prompt their sentences in the writing section. So far this has not brought about stellar classroom discussions but it has them interacting more than just "ho hum, write another journal."
For me, the story telling aspect is what I wish I could do better at introducing into my classroom. I have a great resource in my friend Sue Summer, a master storyteller, just haven't utilized her yet. Getting students to create their own characters and develop those characters into stories of their own composing, would be heaven!
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