improving classroom talk is a presentation to help teachers and other caregivers by giving them skills on how they can engage learners in class effectively. talking is the beginning of teaching. without learners talking, you will create a boring class to you first and to learners.

1. Mr. Bosire
presents:
Classroom Talk:
Engaging Pupils in
Talk for successful
learning

2. People talk when they say things to one
another or have conversation. You talk
to someone when you discuss
something with them. You say that
people are talking if there is a lot of
casual or careless discussion about
something.

3. When do pupils talk? When do you talk? Who
talks most?
Classroom talk takes place when pupils:
•Answer your questions
•Ask you and their classmates questions.
•Answer questions asked by their
classmates.
•Participate in group discussion.

4. As a teacher you are an active
participant in classroom talk when you:
•Ask questions
•Answer questions
•Explain
•Give instructions

5. Why is classroom talk important in children’s
learning?
Children retain what they learn as follows:
Hearing only: 20%
Seeing only: 30%
Hearing and visual support: 50%
Hearing, seeing and talking: 70%
Hearing, seeing, talking and doing: 90%

6. From the above we learn that active
involvement of the pupils through
additional materials being used, practical
work and discussion increases the
amount of pupils can remember.

7. Think of a class of 50 pupils in a lesson
of 30 minutes and see how many each
child needs to talk.
Each child gets 36 seconds.
The calculation is intended to show how
in many of our classes pupils are denied
the chance to learn through participation
in talk.

8. Types of
classroom
talk:
1.one-way-talk
2.Two-way-talk
3.Interactive talk
when they are used:
To give instructions, or to
explain something in your
lesson
Talking to each other i.e.
teacher-pupils
Pupils talk to each other.

9. How do I help my
pupils develop
effective discussion
skills?

10. Turn and Talk strategy is useful when
lots of pupils have ideas to share. The
teacher says: “Turn to your
neighbor/partner and tell them what
your thoughts are about….”
The teacher then asks one member of the pair to summarize
the discussion they had. Or, when active listening skills are to
be reinforced, the teacher might ask a member of the
pair to relate what their partner said to them.

11. Journal Jot is a strategy teachers use
when they want to give pupils an
opportunity to collect and write
their thoughts before sharing them
out with the class. The teacher says:
“Take a few minutes to write your
thoughts about….”
When pupils have completed their writing, the
teacher asks them to share it with partners, small
groups, or the whole class and invites pupils to
respond to one another.

12. Value Line Up is a strategy used by teachers when
they want pupils to appreciate the differing views people
have around a variety of topics/issues. The teacher says:
“I’d like you to form a line across the front of the
classroom. If you strongly agree, stand
near this end of the line based on how strong your belief
is. If you disagree, do the same at the
opposite end of the line.”
The teacher can then invite individuals share their view with the
class and ask participants to change their location on the line as their views
shift on this issue.
Or, the teacher can “fold” the line in half, and invite
participants to share their views with someone with an
opposite view. This helps develop active listening skills.

13. Choose A Side similar to Value Line Up.
But, in this case, the teacher simply asks
pupils to choose a side of the room to sit
on that coincides with their beliefs about
a rigorous topic or problem. During the
ensuing discussion, students are invited
to move to the other side of the room
if a point made during the discussion
sways their view.

14. Pass the Hat is a strategy teachers use to
encourage pupils who might otherwise be
hesitant to ask questions they have about
complex ideas to pose these to the class.
The teacher says: “I’m passing a
hat around the room. Place questions
you would like the class to address in
the hat.”
The teacher then selects questions from the hat to use in
launching and maintaining the discussion asking students for evidence
from the rigorous text/problem to support their
thinking.

15. Role Play is a way to provide practice for behaviors
the teacher wants the class to engage in.
Sometimes this is done “fishbowl” style with a group
of pupils acting out a strategy, norm. or procedure
in front of the class with the teacher stopping the
action frequently to talk about what the class is
seeing/hearing. At other times, the teacher might
ask small groups or pairs to practice a behavior
simultaneously, stopping along the way or
debriefing afterwards to determine what
worked/didn’t work and make adaptations as
needed.

16. How can I make talk
equitable in the
classroom?

17. Not all pupils are comfortable sharing their
ideas in a public forum. You need to decide
if it’s okay for them to be engaged
through just listening. They might later
share their understandings one on one
or in writing.
Some teachers…

18. *Call on pupils with hands up
*Pull sticks with names on
*Write names on a sheet of paper, as students raise hands,
acknowledging with a nod that they wrote the name
down. This frees the student to lower their hand and
listen until the teacher calls on them. Students learn to jot
ideas down so they don’t forget them. When called on,
they say something like “I want to respond to what
Carlos said a few minutes ago about ….” Or, “I was going to
make a point about….. but Alex already did.”

19. Are there tools the
pupils can use
independently to
make talk equitable?

20. Some teachers:
• Provide two sided chips for pupils to flip; green means “I have
something to contribute” and red means “I’m listening and processing
what is being said”.
• Give students two-sided paddles to hold up with agree/disagree
sides, smiley/confused faces, or question/connection for students to
raise in indicating their participation.
• Use speaker props – a ball or microphone for the speaker to hold;
once students are ready to begin the discussion, the group is called
to order when the teacher takes out the “discussion prop.” Once the
discussion begins, only the person with the prop may speak.

21. How do I encourage
pupils to develop
their ideas?

22. Prepare Ahead of Time:
Developing open-ended, higher level questions before the
discussion helps to develop critical thinking skills. Bloom’s
Taxonomy is a great resource to learn how to write questions.
Assigning a reading, math problem, or science
experiment before the discussion and telling the
students they’ll be expected to share their under-
standings with one another helps them come prepared with
their ideas in their heads or jotted down .
Learning how to “press” students to explain or develop their
ideas helps to deepen their understanding.

23. Research shows a link between
engaging pupils in talking about
their learning through classroom
discussions and higher pupils
achievement. Teachers can
impact pupils
test scores while deepening
content knowledge.

24. Thank you for
listening and learning