After my first official observation from my field instructor, we discussed using the "turn and talk" method to utilize in class. Since last Monday, I have used the turn and talk method and realized what a wonderful strategy it is, not only for classroom management, but for thinking, responding, strategizing and discussing. The students are much more willing to speak out in class if they feel more confident after talking with a partner for about 30 seconds each time I ask a question. In order to use this conversation strategy, I modeled the turn and talk with my third graders. We have been using this strategy for almost a week and a half, and already, I can see the students working cooperatively with their partners to discuss relevant information. Not only are they talking, they are thinking of ways their talk compares other groups.
This conversation strategy allows students to with a partner, where they can collaboratively share their ideas. Turn and talk works very well in content areas such as literacy and math. For literacy, I have noticed that my students want to share their reactions with partners and discuss predictions. In math, it helps students share strategies and ideas. During my math lesson today, I used the turn and talk method to solve an open-ended multiplication problem I had on the board. We used the CGI method when discussing, where partners came up to the board to share strategies for solving a multiplication problem. The students began to notice that although they all have different ways of solving a problem, we still get the same answer. Not only is turn and talk is a strategy I will use during student teaching, it is a conversation staple in my classroom that allows students to talk with one another in a controlled, focused way.
These are good observations. Also note how you can extend this in ways that allow the students to talk to each other through student-to-student interactions, e.g., via the whole-class discussion, in which you lead but do not dominate most of the talking.
ReplyDeleteYou might also think of keeping track in a formal / explicit way the types of things your students are sharing and how often each student shares. These are things that you can actually keep track of through formative assessment (e.g., use a spreadsheet or a personal reflection journal of some kind). You can then track which instructional strategies seem to be most useful.