Academic Talk

1.   If you counted the instructional minutes, and sorted them by who is talking during a period or block of instruction, are the minutes that the students are talking the majority on your list? Are you, the teacher, talking more than your students?  I suggest you think about, “WHO is DOING the talking in your classroom?” Think about getting your students to talk MORE!  But NOT JUST ANY TALK!

2.   When the students ARE talking, what are they saying?  Are they using the academic vocabulary that you would like them to be using? Are they talking in a way that, if they wrote like they talk, you would be really satisfied with their writing?

So… Start watching your students… Who is REALLY talking??  What are they REALLY saying?

Here are a few suggestions to get your students to talk the way you want them to talk…

1.   Give the student a SENTENCE FRAME. The frame will have the kind of words you want them to say and use.

2.   Ask them to summarize with REQUIRED VOCABULARY. Give them a list of 3-4 words that MUST be used in their summary.

3.    Consider the student’s English proficiency level, and ROLE PLAY a real-life situation, with the appropriate sentence structure of his/her proficiency level in their role.

Let me know what you think!