Boy, has it been a long time since my last post! I've been busy, to say the least, with teaching three courses this semester, loving my 1/2 classroom by day and shoveling, shoveling, shoveling the 3 feet + of snow that has plagued the Northeast. Can we say seven snow days and school on two days during April vacation? Since last year, my school has had professional development on Accountable Talk across all subject areas. We want our learners to be thinkers--more than that. We want our students to think deep, to encourage each other to think deeply and to be able to clearly and accurately explain their deep thinking to others. We have had quite a few walk-throughs in order to measure our growth (anonymously) throughout our journey. The results have allowed us to celebrate how far we have come and to plan our next steps to get even better! Encouraging Accountable Talk in my classroom has been a learning curve. I was challenged at first to figure out when I could talk and when I couldn't! At the same time however, I was eager to push my students. They were ready. In mathematics one day, my principal and a team were doing a walk-through. The children were very busy working on a non routine math problem (at the beginning stages). They hadn't solved it right away. Some weren't on the right path to getting the problem solved. Some mathematicians were doing a lot of talking, but were saying incorrect information. At first, I thought this went wayyyyy wrong. I wasn't sure if saying anything to the groups was OK. Afterwards, my principal said something really powerful. "You coach the talk, not the math." Coaching the talking, not necessarily the content was an eye opener for me. Because I teach first and second graders, my goal was to work on how we talk to each other. To do this, I need to model it, scaffold it, reinforce it and model it some more! It's OK to be doing the talking as the teacher when it comes to training our young thinkers how to use accountable talk. I do this in a number of ways. If a student appears to be challenged I may say, "How about talk to your team? Tell them the specific part that has you confused." If a group is finished with a problem early, I may say, "Talk to each other. Come up with another way to show your thinking." In a turn and talk, I am always reinforcing accountable talk "I notice how not only did you say you disagree with your partner's thinking. You explained why with evidence from the text!" From the above example, you can notice how I am coaching the talk, not the content of my lesson. There are so many great resources out there to promote accountable talk. My teaching partner and I really like this one because of the icons that diving the type of talk from talk that will ask a question, to talk that will begin to state a friendly disagreement. In my classroom, I made an Accountable Talk bookmarks and have hung up many banners with questions, response stems, etc. Both are available in my TpT store by clicking HERE. Below are some to which I refer when I want to push thinking during mathematics. I have a whole banner of them over one of my large bulletin boards too. I have modeled a few at a time over the course of this year. The reading teacher and the speech therapist in my school have both hung some up in their classrooms too. Here's what I have used to make handy dandy bookmarks or reminder cards for my students. Happy weekend. Melt, snow melt!
We’ve shared about Talking Mats in a video and on our Facebook page, but we needed to call on the experts to go into more detail about this approach. Thankfully, the co-directors of this proj…
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Making Conversation a Cornerstone in the Art Classroom % %
Students takes turns to choose a card and talk about the topics for a minute.This is a great game to develop fluency. 90+ FREE materials here.
Provide explicit instruction on how to use Talk Moves during conversations and engage every student with this simple strategy.
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Teenagers have a lot of great insight on life. iMOM’s Conversation Starters for Teens will help you get a great conversation going with your teen.
Talking to yourself improves concentration and mental recollection. Psychology Facts Quotes, Human Psychology Facts Quotes, Interesting Facts Quotes.
When you meet someone new, it can be awkward and uncomfortable if you don't know what to say. Learn to start a conversation with these proven strategies.
Level: This is most suited to B2 / C1 level students. Time: 30 minutes + This is a great game to develop fluency and bring some fun into the classroom. Students take turns choosing a topic/card and talk about the topic for a minute / 2 minutes. We have a teacher's copy (including teacher's notes) and a student version which you can email to your class for online lessons. Get hundreds of ESL lesson plans, worksheets, and activities for adult and teen classes here! For best results when printing our PDFs, open and print them through Adobe Acrobat. https://get.adobe.com/reader/
I posted a picture of this volume control chart on Instagram today (even though it is a little blurry! I need to work on taking better p...
There is one thing that the field of talking therapies is, ironically, not talking about and this is the existential threat posed to our professions by Critical Social Justice Theory (CSJT).
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Small talk in English might seem unnecessary but the truth is we use it for a reason. Get my favorite questions & tips for successful small talk in English.
Read about five TED Talks that are perfect for teachers trying to make a difference!
Book Creator is an amazing and easy-to-use app that allows teachers and students to create a story, using a variety of different tools and features.
Toolbox Talk on Fall prevention guardrails system includes top rail, mid rail and toe-boards to prevent fall of workers and objects. conduct safety toolbox talk on guardrails system work at height
When in doubt: Ask, don't tell.
This worksheet contains 18 conversation cards, a quotes box and an exercise on the present perfect tense. The cards can be cut out if desired and be used as conversation questions. Can be used with both young learners and adults (pre-int to upper-intermediate).Hope you find it useful. - ESL worksheets
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Download our free solution focused reframes to look at student behavior. Helpful for strength based IEPS and behavior plans.
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Three parts: laughter, engagment, and questions.
Level: This is suitable for B2-C2 level students. Time: 30 mins + This is a Colours Idioms lesson. Students study idioms connected to colours in context, and then complete an exercise matching the idioms to their definitions. Finally, they write mini dialogues to practise the idioms. We have a teacher's copy (including teacher's notes and answers) and a student version which you can email to your class for online lessons. For best results when printing our PDFs, open and print them through Adobe Acrobat. https://get.adobe.com/reader/
ChatGPT might be one of the most talked-about tools of 2023 so far. It has academics worried about cheating in classrooms, writers worried about their jobs, and everyone concerned about the authenticity of online interactions. But it does have some value, even for web designers. We’ll ta...
Self-talk is the inner voice that goes on inside our heads throughout our waking hours. Positive self-talk is when we talk to ourselves in a reassuring, kind, and more optimistic way. It's the difference from saying to yourself: "I'm an idiot, I can't believe I failed this math test" or "I'm disappo
Download this Premium Vector about People sitting on chairs in circle and talking, and discover more than 165 Million Professional Graphic Resources on Freepik. #freepik #vector #therapy #grouptherapy #psychologist
A hand-crafted collection of free printables for kids and moms designed to simplify your life and make it sweeter.
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