If there's one thing I know about 5th Graders, it's that they LOVE to talk. From the moment they come in in the morning to the last "Bye!" at the end of the day, my only constant is their continuous desire to connect with one another through conversation. In fact, most of them are quite happy to talk to themselves if no one else is listening and, in this 24/7 connected culture, the chat doesn't fade at the end of the school day, with nightly messages about cute kitten pictures, funny videos, and minecraft updates, and desperate late night emails about homework, or what to wear tomorrow. |
5th Graders might think that talking is simply about building relationships, but I know it is much more than that. Conversation builds critical thinking and negotiation skills. It forces kids to entertain alternative perspectives and develop empathy. It gives learners time to process new information and express it in a way that makes sense for themselves. It builds content understanding, and cultivates connections between different content areas. Dialogue provides an immediate feedback channel in the classroom; through their conversations, children learn whether their ideas make sense, and if they are on track socially and academically, and those same conversations make it possible for me to find out what my students are thinking and understanding, what they are interested in, and what is confusing for them. Conversation is the noisy, younger sibling of the inner dialogue that happens when thinking and learning are occurring.
However, you can't gather 20 ten year olds into a classroom and expect these kinds of powerful conversations to develop naturally! For conversations to be marked by curiosity, confidence and joy, children need to be willing to share their ideas, to actively listen to each other, to know what might be relevant to share and how to listen and respond to each other in constructive ways, and they need to believe that their classmates respect and care about what they have to say. When they work, classroom conversations are powerful motivators and reinforcers for learning. When they don't work, they are trigger points for teacher frustration and opportunities for shyer, quieter, slower processors and divergent thinkers to feel intimidated and excluded.
Given all of that, I don't want to leave the development of a culture of conversation in my classroom to chance. Here are the three key elements I try to incorporate in order to harness the happiness that is generated when 5th Graders really listen to each other.
Depth | Time |
I try to ask questions that are interesting, relevant, and which don't have one simple answer. If you think that there is only one right answer, and the teacher already knows what that is, why would you take the risk of being wrong? And you can't have a discussion if everyone wants to say the same thing! | I give space for thinking before sharing out so that students have time to think beyond the first ideas that pops into their head. This could be in the form of silent reflection, a journal entry, or a Think Pair Share. I also make time for our conversations, and actively listen to what is being said. It's easy to get into a time squeeze at the end of a lesson, so I'm really careful to plan out time for speaking and listening. We record our ideas on chart paper or post-its, making sure that all ideas are given value. Online conversations, on platforms like kidblog, edmodo, and padlet, are also great ways to add time into the conversation equation. These are great opportunities for assessment, as I can follow specific conversations and reflect on what they tell me about student learning. |
Structure
Confident Conversationalists need to know how to add value to their discussions. I use rubrics and routines to help the class practice coming up with original ideas, share them effectively, and actively listen to each other. I make them accountable for listening to each other by picking sticks for representatives in the small groups to feed back to the whole class. It doesn't take too long, but is is a great way of ensuring that each group member synthesizes the discussion and feels responsible for understanding what was going on.
Here are some of the ways that we make the art of conversation visible in 5L:
Here are some of the ways that we make the art of conversation visible in 5L:
#5L Wonders is a hokey, home-made ipad, but I use it to ask an interesting question each morning. Each student has to respond on an equally hokey smartphone. It sets a tone of curiosity, and the students get practice coming up with their own opinions. It doesn't take long for the students to start making suggestions for the question of the day, and they are usually amazing! |
'Yes, Because...And' is a great activity to play at the start of the year. The students take turns to listen to an idea, explain why it is great, and then add on to it. It's a fun way to practice active listening and constructive responding. It's also a useful brainstorming tool for writing assignments, and a great way to kick off a group project where there are likely to be lots of competing ideas! For example, you could start simple, with. "If I had a million dollars, I would buy a time machine." Next in line responds, "YES! Because... then you could be in two places at once! And... I would make it big enough for my whole family" ... "YES! Because..."
Make Your Message Matter is a rubric for adding value to conversations. We go through the various ways that we can respond to a comment in constructive ways. I created stickers of the icons, and the students practice naming the kinds of responses they have given in written conversations, like chalk talks, at the start of the year, by sticking on the icon that matches their response. We also use the rubric for online discussions, to support digital citizenship practice.
Conversation MATters is a routine for adding depth to small group discussions. Each student is assigned a role to take during the discussion, from summarizing the main idea, to offering alternative perspectives and making connections, to asking participants to elaborate on their ideas. Some of the roles are hard, and need some practice, especially the diversity and connections roles. At the end, we might do a whole class share out, or jigsaw so that the different roles can listen to and learn from each other. I created this mat towards the end of last year, and I was amazed at how it extended our conversations. Everybody had a clear role that they would be held accountable for, and no one could get away with sharing their thoughts and then drifting off. My higher level thinkers loved the challenge of pushing the conversation in interesting directions, the socially challenged benefitted from having clear rules for joining in, the slower processors had more time to think through their ideas because the conversations lasted longer, and the 'throw-away' thinkers had to slow down and justify their thinking instead of simply sharing the first thing that came into their heads. I'm going to start earlier with it this year, and maybe extend it into writing - these roles would make great prompts for brainstorming responses to non-fiction and current events articles!