11 Ways To Get Them Talking About It

"...recap is especially helpful for students...who have memory barriers because they tend to forget the purpose of the lessons as they try to apply new skills. Verbalization not only reconnects the dots for them but also strengthens mental pathways for later retrieval." - Margaret Searle, Causes & Cures in the Classroom, p. 58

One of the surest and simplest ways to promote the learning of the lessons we try to teach our students or staff is to get them talking about the content or skills of focus.

Talking it out reorganizes the material or steps inside our own heads so that it makes sense to us.

Talking it out forces us process, apply, and create output as a result of the daily input; what good is input if it's not translated to output?

We need to be mindful of this when we plan and when we design learning opportunities for our students or staff.

We spend so much time planning, preparing, and practicing dynamic and interesting ways to give our people input, but it's how intentional and planned the output is that will determine to what degree what we've taught is actually learned.

Talking our way through new lessons is tried and true; it's a way to make it permanent in our heads without having to stretch our creative capacity; there's no writer's block or foreign skill set required to talk about what I'm learning.

Here are some ways to get them talking about what we're teaching:

1. Stop class or meeting every 10 minutes and have neighbors turn and talk about what was just taught, done, discussed, etc. for 2 minutes
2. When asking questions to the class have each student write their answer on a little white board and hold up their answers. Before revealing the right answer have neighbors discuss why they answered how they did.
3. Have students send you an audio note using the voice recorder app on their phone, or a website like vocaroo.com summarizing what happened in class today, what was taught, and how it will be used tomorrow and beyond
4. Have students prepare audio notes on the topic of the day taking a certain viewpoint. Use edmodo, a common Google doc, itslearning, etc. for students to have a single spot to post all of their audio notes to and use the prepared statements to springboard further more spontaneous candid discussion the next day in class.
5. Have students screencast as they solve a math problem or construct a thesis paragraph using webistes like screencast-o-matic or apps like educreations.
6. When making slides utilize the narration option; oral presentations don't always have to be live. With that being said...
7. ...Get people up and talking about their work in front of a group. Earlier in the school year I presented to 12 different groups of ~100 students over the course of two weeks; by the 11th time I really really knew my stuff.
8. In a history or literature class have the students Face Off. During a Colonial America unit I may partner students off and have one act as a Loyalist and the other as a Patriot; in an economics class I may have one act as Keynes and one as Friedman; in a lesson on the Korean War one would be Truman and the other MacArthur.
9. Establish a classroom routine where at the beginning of every class someone is the "leader," and they recap yesterday's class and ask members of the class content questions to review and generate discussion. Laura Evans establishes routines that get the students talking better than anyone I've ever seen.
10. If you have a website use it to provide an authentic audience for student spoken work.
11. Make an activity pyramid of options for students to respond to input and processes as they read or listen. The linked pyramid calls for written responses, but could easily be tailored.

Getting them talking about it betters the odds it moves from taught to learned.

How else can we get them talking about it?

Google Docs in the Classroom

As I began utilizing online collaboration tools for my teaching and learning last year, one of the first sites I immediately grew fond of was Google Docs. As soon as I began using it in the middle of the year in my AP US History class, I saw its value in assessment of writing, studying for exams, and preparing outlines in an interactive and reflective way. It immediately led to increased writing about the material we were covering, which directly led to improved performance on formal essays. It was also extremely effective as an organizing tool for a staff committee I chaired.  We were able to discuss differences and outline thoughts leading up to each meeting, which led to seamless and productive face to face gatherings. It eliminated many of the physical restraints such as time and other commitments that can plague staff committees.

The one frustration that came with using Google Docs was confusion and messiness that multiple editors can bring to an existing document. At times, clauses were accidentally deleted, or answers were misplaced or spaced in awkward ways. My AP class this year can attest to that from their summer assignment.  However, the new comment feature on the site seems to alleviate the only negative I saw.  It maintains all the collaborative benefits multiple sets of eyes on the same document can bring, but allows for the document itself to remain intact.  I was excited to use it in the classroom to analyze war quotes to begin a unit on morality and WWII earlier this week with my America & the World classes with juniors and seniors.

Allowing the students to comment on the document rather than edit opened up many new possibilities for classroom application of Google Docs.  The document remained clean, which allowed the students read the quotes without distraction and focus on what they want to say about each one.  The way they were able to discuss and dissect what they were reading while informally improving their ability to articulate their thoughts after reading with their writing was exactly what I was hoping for.  Being in the computer lab together allowed for the students to follow up written thoughts with conversation.  It was a rare occurrence where we were working on our reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills all at the same time.

I envision us using this tool in the future as a way to model the great reading strategies championed in Mike Schmoker's, Focus, as it allows me to show the students exactly what I would highlight through a difficult reading.  Comments provide readers the opportunity to essentially write in the margins, like one would do on paper.  Students that may be unsure of what to highlight and comment on in text would immediately benefit from seeing in real time what others are choosing to note.  Peer editing becomes cleaner, and I now have the ability to discuss writing samples with students in a more direct and efficient manner. I continue to be impressed with Google Docs, and the way it allows me to promote good reading habits and analytical writing in innovative and modern ways.