Nichols, Maria – Featured Session: The Power of Purposeful Talk

The Power of Purposeful Talk
Maria Nichols
Talk Matters
Classroom discourse is the ocean
on which all else floats.
~ James Britton
CCSS English Language Arts
Key Design Considerations
An integrated model of literacy
Although the standards are divided into Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and
Language strands for conceptual clarity, the processes of communication are closely
connected, as reflected throughout the document.
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Purposeful talk: What is it, and why does it matter in our world today?
A dialogic classroom is…
… one in which literacy is used to immerse teacher and students in an ongoing reflective
conversation with the texts of their lives.
~ Bob Fecho
Talk matters: Career success
The way work is organized now is lots of networks of cross-­‐functional teams that work together
on specific projects.
~ Tony Wagner
Talk matters: Preparing for success beyond career
America is far more than a place. It is an idea, the most powerful idea in the history of nations.
…We are now the bearers of that idea, leading a great people into a new world.
~ Bill Clinton
State of the Union Address
1997
Talk matters: Becoming global citizens
The globe has shrunk into an interconnected and interdependent village through global
movements of goods, information, money, and people. But this village is new, its residents have just
moved in, and they don't know one another very well.
~ Yong Zhao
Ed Leadership
September 2009
Recitation is by far the predominant mode of classroom discourse in American secondary schools.
~ Marty Nystrand
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The I.R.E. pattern of discourse
• In the IRE, a teacher initiation (I) is followed by a student reply (R), followed by an
evaluation of this reply (E) by the teacher (Mehan, 1979; Cazden, 1988)
• The IRE pattern was actually "the most common pattern of classroom discourse at all
grade levels" (Cazden 1988:29).
•
School knowledge is the knowledge which someone else presents to us. We partly grasp it, enough
to answer the teacher's questions, to do exercises, or to answer examination questions, but it
remains someone else's knowledge, not ours.
~ Douglas Barnes
But dialogue … is a coming to an intellectual exchange willing to see and hear something new in
the exchange, and actually creating a newer, stronger understanding…
~ David Bohm
A dialogic classroom is…
… one in which there are lots of open questions and extended exchanges among students. These
are not classrooms based on the delivery of facts.
~ Peter Johnston
“From Exploratory Talk to Critical Conversations”
by Kathryn M. Pierce and Carol Gilles in Exploring Talk in School
• Social talk
• Exploratory talk
• Presentational talk
• Meta-­‐talk
• Critical talk
CCSS Speaking and Listening Standards
Comprehension and Collaboration
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
Key Points
• An important focus of the speaking and listening standards is academic discussion in
one-­‐on-­‐one, small group, and whole class settings. Formal presentations are one
important way such talk occurs, but so is the more informal discussion that takes place
as students collaborate to answer questions, build understanding, and solve problems.
Getting purposeful talk started: Creating space and support for exploratory and critical
talk
Conversational behavior
• Hearing all voices
• Growing ideas
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• Say something meaningful
• Listen with intent
• Keep lines of thinking alive
• Negotiating meaning
Creating dialogic learning environments: strategies to grow exploratory and critical talk
Growing talk
• Teacher as facilitator (IRE à dialogic)
• The power of compelling ideas
You don’t write down for children.
You write up.
~ E. B. White
• Moving the thinking and talking from the text to the world
How can we extend the imagination it takes to live inside a book – the ability
to make meaning and build the world of the story – to a social imagination,
a belief that we can make lives better and more just for people?
~Randy and Katherine Bomer
• Wrestling with controversy
For intellectual engagement, the most powerful lever comes when children
disagree and take each other seriously.
~ Peter Johnston
• Dwelling in shades of grey
• Emphasizing strategic efforts
Dialogue changes the epistemology of the classroom – what counts as knowledge.
~ Marty Nystrand
The power of purposeful talk: Developing collaborative abilities and critical habits of
mind
…these children and their peers are learning to participate in a strong democracy. They expect to
engage, to disagree, and to grow from that disagreement. At some point, they will vote, but that
will be after they have understood their own and each other’s views and have expanded their
collective mind in the process. Even if they vote self-­‐interest, it will be enlightened self-­‐interest.
~Peter Johnson
Professional texts cited:
Barnes, Douglas. From Communication to Curriculum.
Bohm, David. On Talk.
Britton, James. Talking to Learn
Cazdon, Courtney. Classroom Discourse.
Hall, Kathy. Literacy and Schooling: Towards Renewal in Primary Education Policy
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Johnston, Peter. Opening Minds
Lattimer, Heather. “Gaining perspective: Recognizing the processes by which students
come to understand and respect alternative viewpoints”
April 2009 https://sites.google.com/site/hlattimerusd/
Mercer, Neil and Hodgkinson, Steve. Exploring Talk in School
Nichols, Maria. Comprehension Through Conversation.
Expanding Comprehension through Multigenre Text Sets
Nystrand, Marty. Opening Dialogue.
Wagner, Tony. The Global Achievement Gap
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