Amy Filsinger Amy.filsinger@gmail.

com PDS January 22nd, 2011

Using Accountable Talk to Increase Rigor in the Reading Classroom

Do Now and Share Out Describe your current use of accountable talk in each phase of your literacy block. Mini-Lesson Word Work Shared Reading Guided Reading Independent Reading

The Three Main Components of Accountable Talk: 1. Cold-Calling 2. Think, Pair, Share 3. Book Clubs and Socratic Discussions

I.

Cold-Calling a. If you have ever heard of a little text called Teach Like a Champion, you know all you need to know. Just do it, on Monday, and be sure to incorporate complementary techniques (100% and No Opt Out have been particularly effective and empowering in my classroom).

II.

What is Think, Pair, Share?

Most Importantly, it is not TURN AND TALK Think-Pair-Share is a strategy designed to provide students with "food for thought" on a given topics enabling them to formulate individual ideas and share these ideas with another student. It is a learning strategy developed by Lyman and associates to encourage student classroom participation. Rather than using a basic recitation method in which a teacher poses a question and one student offers a response, Think-Pair-Share encourages a high degree of pupil response and can help keep students on task. What is its purpose?
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RETENTION increases by 33% with each iteration! Providing "think time" increases quality of student responses. Platform for higher-order thinking questions Facilitates re-creation of concepts and words in student friendly language Research tells us that we need time to mentally "chew over" new ideas in order to store them in memory. When teachers present too much information all at once, much of that information is lost. If we give students time to "think-pair-share" throughout the lesson, more of the critical information is retained. When students talk over new ideas, they are forced to make sense of those new ideas in terms of their prior knowledge. Their misunderstandings about the topic are often revealed (and resolved) during this discussion stage. Students are more willing to participate since they don't feel the peer pressure involved in responding in front of the whole class. Think-Pair-Share is easy to use on the spur of the moment.

How can I do it?

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With students seated in teams of 4, have them number them from 1 to 4. Announce a discussion topic or problem to solve. (Example: Which room in our school is larger, the cafeteria or the gymnasium? How could we find out the answer?) Give students at least 10 seconds of think time to THINK of their own answer. This has CHANGED the caliber of my classroom discussion overnight. Using student numbers, announce discussion partners. (Example: For this discussion, Student #1 and #2 will be partners. At the same time, Student #3 and #4 will talk over their ideas.) Ask students to PAIR with their partner to discuss the topic or solution. Finally, randomly call on a few students to SHARE their ideas with the class.

Uses for think, pair, share

Note check, Vocabulary review, Quiz review, Reading check, Concept review, Lecture check, Outline, Discussion questions, Partner reading, Topic development, Agree/Disagree, Brainstorming, Simulations, Current events opinion, Conceding to the opposition, Summarize, Develop an opinion Hints and Management Ideas
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Assign Partners - Be sure to assign discussion partners rather than just saying "Turn to a partner and talk it over." Change Partners - Switch the discussion partners frequently. With students seated in teams, they can pair with the person beside them for one discussion and the person across from them for the next discussion. Give Think Time - Be sure to provide adequate "think time." I generally have students give me a thumbs-up sign when they have something they are ready to share. Monitor Discussions - Walk around and monitor the discussion stage. You will frequently hear misunderstandings that you can address during the whole-group discussion. Timed-Pair-Share - If you notice that one person in each pair is monopolizing the conversation, you can switch to "Timed-Pair-Share." In this modification, you give each partner a certain amount of time to talk. (For example, say that Students #1 and #3 will begin the discussion. After 60 seconds, call time and ask the others to share their ideas.) Randomly Select Students - During the sharing stage at the end, call on students randomly. You can do this by having a jar of popsicle sticks that have student names or numbers on them. (One number for each student in the class, according to their number on your roster.) Draw out a popsicle stick and ask that person to tell what their PARTNER said. Questioning - Think-Pair-Share can be used for a single question or a series of questions. You might use it one time at the beginning of class to say "What do you know about ________ ?" or at the end of class to say "What have you learned today?"

How can I adapt it?

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Think-Write-Pair-Share - To increase individual accountability, have students jot down their ideas before turning to a partner to discuss them. You can walk around the room and look at what they are writing to see who understands the concept. It also keeps kids from adopting the attitude that they will just sit back and let their partner to all the thinking. Spelling - Call out a word, have them think of the spelling, then designate one person to turn and whisper the spelling to their partner. The partner gives a thumbs-up to show agreement, or corrects the spelling. You can reveal the correct spelling by uncovering the word from a chart. Reading - Discuss character traits and motives, make predictions before a chapter or at the end of a read-aloud session, discuss the theme of a book or story, make guesses about vocabulary words based on context clues in the story, discuss the meaning of similes and metaphors in a story

Language Arts - Discuss Daily Oral Language responses, discuss ways to edit or revise a piece of writing, talk over story ideas, discuss letter-writing conventions

Empowerment Goals With Think-Pair-Share, students are given time to think through their own answers to the question(s) before the questions are answered by other peers and the discussion moves on. Students also have the opportunity to think aloud with another student about their responses before being asked to share their ideas publicly. This strategy provides an opportunity for all students to share their thinking with at least one other student; this, in turn, increases their sense of involvement in classroom learning. Listening skills, communication skills, using appropriate structures and features of spoken language, effective note taking and co-operative skills are most effectively assessed when using this strategy. As a Cooperative Learning strategy, Think-Pair-Share also benefits students in the areas of peer acceptance, peer support, academic achievement, self-esteem, and increased interest in other students and school.

http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/GO/GO_pdf/think_pair_share.pdf Whole Class Book Talks from Amy Helms of EL Haynes Students talk as a whole class about a common text (the read aloud). y y y y y y Builds community around books Struggling readers can do higher level thinking about a harder text Requires students to grow new ideas Authentic Helps prepare students for work in smaller book clubs Opportunity for assessment Book Clubs . Students meet in smaller groups to discuss a leveled text. y y y y Build community Opportunity for assessment Authentic Students have lots of opportunities to think/grow new ideas .

How to Set Up Book Clubs: 1. Create leveled groups get leveled books (Library, scavenge at your school, booksforamerica, Donorschoose.org). Ideally, groups have choice about what books they read. Plan to get several books per club so clubs can read multiple books together. 2. Create Reading Schedules: see attached reading schedule. y The rest of the class is doing independent reading while you are pulling ONE club at a time. Clubs dont need to meet every day. Clubs can meet 1-3 times per book depending on the group. Kids should be keeping up a high reading volume. You dont want a club stuck in the same book for a month. At the end of class, hold kids accountable for doing the reading. Xerox pages that they need to read or ask them to finish reading during lunch, specials, etc.

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3. Organize book club bins. Deputize book club captains.

4. Read the books! Some say you dont have to; but, you do.

Teaching Accountable Talk

5. Before beginning regular accountable, model how you want students to talk. You can do that in a number of ways: make a video with your co-teachers, do a live conversation with co-teachers in front of your class, or video of another club. In addition, plan a few talk-centered lessons where you explicitly teach kids how to discuss with a partner and how to talk in book clubs. You might do lessons around these teaching points:

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Scholars use sentence starters to push their level of thinking to the next level. Scholars make eye contact and repeat their partners points to become strong listeners. Scholars keep track of points of agreement and disagreement to bring to the class-wide discussion. Readers come to book club prepared, having read the assigned pages. They follow the schedule and read the pages assigned for that day. If they fall behind, they come up with a plan to catch up. Readers agree and disagree politely. They use respectful phrases, such as I agree with _______ and I would like to add more, or I see it slightly differently. I think Readers share original ideas by asking themselves, Has someone else already said what Im about to say. If the answer is yes, they choose another thought to share. Readers give proof (evidence from the text) for their ideas.

During Book Clubs and Think-Pair-Shares You are y y y y y Recording what students are saying Assessing on the rubric Posing questions Acting like a proficient partner Whispering in to reluctant talkers

How to Set Up Whole Class Book Talks: Tips for Strong Book Talks Book Talk Language

Troubleshooting: What to Do When Its Not Working Kids arent talking y

y The kids have beat an idea to death y

Have students stop and jot during the read aloud and come prepared with at least one idea to talk about Prep struggling students to talk before the conversation (You could even do this on the way to recess) Whisper in Whisper in to one student: Say this: It sounds like weve said all we can say about that. Lets discuss ________ Ask this student to track who is talking Fists and Fingers Go back to raising hands

One student dominates the conversation

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Students are interrupting each other and/or all speaking at once Theres no accountability. Students arent listening to one anothers ideas.

Tell students they are going to have to write after the book talk. (At first I thought, now I think) Be a model book club member Ask students to prepare for clubs/book talks by bringing a post it Model strong post its Post its on Conversation Map Teach a mini-lesson on adding original ideas

Kids are just retelling the story

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y Club has trouble getting started Students are just repeating what someone else has just said y y

When and How Should I Incorporate Accountable Talk?

As we walk through the best practices, stop and jot the methods you should implement in each phase of your reading block. While you may not incorporate each phase every day, keep in mind accountable should be used daily.
Mini-Lesson Word Work Shared Reading/Read Aloud Guided Reading Independent Reading

Each lesson should be punctuated with multiple opportunities to think-pair-share Cold-calling must be used throughout

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Marzano explains that after hearing a word explained, students must both place it in their own words, and discuss it with classmates in multiple contexts to internalize. Again, cold-calling is necessary Word Buddies

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TPS works extremely well here as students get to practice the think-aloud skill you are modeling that day orally. This oral application is key for successful written implementation in independent reading Cold-calling is key Students should use accountable talk language should a higherorder thinking question field a worthwhile class discussion

Cold-calling during lesson.

Excellent time to give proficientadvanced groups quiet book club time Be sure to conclude each independent reading/practice time with a share out, in the form of a TPS or class socratic discussion

Scaffolding Think-Pair-Share

Question or Prompt

What I Thought

What my partner thought

What we could share

My Name: ____________________________ Partners Name: _________________________ Date:___________________

How am I going to roll out Accountable Talk in my classroom?

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