Discussion Post 4

One type of talk that I have noticed in my classroom is teacher-guided reporting. Many of the students have great ideas and want to share things with the class but often have trouble articulating their thoughts correctly. The often use vague terms like "it" and "this". If a student is addressing the whole class, the teacher tries to have the students use more specific terms. Unfortunately, I think that the teacher often guides the students thinking a little too much. She hints at what the right answer is and gives the notion that their answer isn't completely right. She will say things like "hmm..well I think you mean is this...." When in fact her interpretation is not what the child was saying. I think she is trying to save students from embarrassment because their answer is incorrect. The students often realize their mistakes and then simply agrees with her so they can sit down. The example in the book of teacher guided reporting is excellent, but doesn't always go like that. Questioning, commenting, and encouraging take time and many teachers do not take the time to do this type of talk properly in order for students to gain what should from it.

Response-centered talk is incredibly important to literacy development and there is evidence of this type of talk in the classroom. The students are divided up into "literacy groups" and each group does a different activity. For one activity, the teacher reads a book to the group and then do an activity related to the text. For example, the write a letter to the author asking questions about the book and then share the letters with each other to find similarities and differences in their questioning. The book being read are often about important issues such as civil rights, racism, equality, etc. They students often talk about what they learned from the book and what else they want to know. The teacher is there to help facilitate discussion when there is a lull in interaction. There are some students in the classroom that need encouraging when it come to group discussions. If the teacher does not call on the specifically, they often do not participate. The teacher will then ask, "well, what do you think?" or "Do you agree or disagree". Since the group is small and not too intimidating, this is usually enough to jump-start their thinking.