Video
Video transcript
Presenter intro: Helena Moore
There are definitely times we want our pupils to talk in lessons. Meaningful classroom talk helps pupils to rehearse ideas, check their understanding, and develop their knowledge. To get the best out of this, classroom talk needs to be carefully planned and delivered. It will take time and practice, but getting classroom talk right can be a rewarding experience for both pupils and teachers.
Presenter main
Effective classroom talk can help pupils to think when teachers plan it carefully and set it up well. When pupils are engaged in well-structured talk it can help them to develop their understanding in lots of different ways. It can help pupils to retrieve previously learned material, connect new content to existing knowledge and extend their vocabulary. Classroom talk can support learning when it’s planned with care.
A good starting point for planning classroom talk is to ask yourself, what do I want my pupils to think hard about? If you’re clear about the purpose of classroom talk when you plan it, it’s more likely to be effective. Do you want pupils to recall some existing knowledge, like what capacity and volume mean? In this case, you might ask pupils to test each other. Or do you want pupils to connect new content to existing knowledge? An example here might be asking pupils to look at where rainforest is on a map and share their predictions about its climate, drawing on their knowledge about the equator. Or do you want pupil to reveal their thinking steps so they can practice getting them right? In this case you might get one pupil to explain what they’re doing to another.
Once you’ve designed a classroom talk activity try testing it out quickly to see whether it requires pupils to think about what you want them to or not. Effective classroom talk should be matched to what pupils need to learn. There are a couple of other key questions that teachers can address at the planning stage:
- Do my pupils have the necessary knowledge with which to engage in this activity?
- Do they require any further support? In order to increase the rigour and focus of classroom talk, pupils need to have something to talk about. They need to have some knowledge to draw on. They may also need some scaffolds to guide their talk and keep it on task. Talking frames and vocabulary banks can be a good way of improving the quality of classroom talk.
Once teachers have planned the classroom talk they need to set it up too. Teachers need to provide clear task instructions which include how they want pupils to behave. This might mean asking pupils to turn and face each other, identifying which person talks first and who will be responsible for feeding back to the class. Establishing good routines for classroom talk helps pupils to pay attention.
One important thing to bear in mind about classroom talk activities is that it can be difficult to get an accurate picture of what every pupil in the class is thinking. When teachers circulate and listen to pupils talk, they need to think carefully about what they hear before they make any decisions that are based on it. It might be totally obvious that the whole class has misunderstood the task, in which case it’ll be well worth stopping it and clarifying. But if you hear one or two pupils make a mistake, that won’t show you whether the whole class has made the same error or not. Instead, you want to choose a method of questioning that gives you a much bigger sample size before you decide on what to do next.
Presenter exemplification framing
In the next example, you will watch an Ambition Institute coach model how to set up a group talk activity. As you watch pay particular attention to how they do the following:
- Plans activities around what pupils need to think hard about
- Provides scaffolds for pupil talk to increase the focus and rigour of dialogue
Exemplification: Ambition Institute coach
In this example, I’m going to model how we can support effective group talk. I want you to imagine I’m teaching a year six science lesson. they’d been learning how to identify and name the parts of the human circulatory system and know how blood is pumped around the body. I’ve designed this activity to give pupils the chance to recall different parts of the circulatory system and think about how they work. By circulating during the activity, monitoring pupils’ talk and using cold call at the end of the activity, it will allow me to gather data on the depth of pupils’ understanding and identify any remaining misconceptions pupils may have which I can then address. Pupils have worked in groups and pairs before, but it is still important for me to remind them of the expectations when working in a group.
“So we’re going to have five minutes in total for this discussion. I’d like you to consider which of the following statements is true and why?
A. If you stand on your head your feet won’t get any blood
B. If you stand on your head more blood will go to your head
C. If you stand on your head your heart will need to pump harder
D. If you stand on your head, it won’t make any difference to your heart or your blood circulation
I’m going to leave these statements up on the board, throughout your discussion. There are also some words I’d expect to hear as I’m listening to your discussion. And these are on the board as well. So we have heart, circulate, blood vessels, transport, oxygen, gravity, and pressure.
I’m going to model what I would like to see during your discussion using a slightly different statement. So the statement I’m considering is, if you raise your hand, your heart will need to pump harder. So Rubia, in the discussion, might say, “I agree with that statement” and she would give her reasons why. And Bethany might then say, well, “I disagree with that statement” and she would give her reasons why. And they would continue to discuss and come to an agreement on that statement.
I’d like us to remember our classroom rules for discussion as we go through this activity. Number one: all members of the group must contribute. Number two: every contribution is treated with respect. It’s listened to without interruption, and it’s allowed to finish. Number three: each group will come to an agreement about the statements. And that might mean that you need to resolve some differences. And number four: every suggestion a member makes must be justified. So say what you think and why.
Some of you will make mistakes and that’s normal. The purpose of this is to help me check what you know. So if you’ve forgotten something or you make an error, we can correct it. If your partner says something you think is wrong, you need to firstly listen and politely state what you think is wrong. You might say, “I disagree with that, and I think that’s wrong because”, and "I think the right way is". And then you would politely state your point.
To begin with, I’m going to give you one minute independent thinking time. And then we will have four minutes on the main discussion. I’ll be circulating the room and your one minute thinking time starts now.”
I want to draw your attention to a few things in that model. First, I planned the activity around what I want pupils to think hard about: the different features of the circulatory system and how they function. Pupils learnt this content earlier in the lesson, and this is a good opportunity to consolidate their understanding. The task is designed to match the thinking that I want to encourage. By asking pupils to come to an agreement, they are forced to justify their answers and draw upon existing knowledge and connect it to this concrete example.
I put appropriate scaffolds in place to improve the focus and the rigour of the dialogue. Pupils were given time to think on their own before they start talking. And I provided them with a vocabulary bank to improve the accuracy of that talk. I also modelled how they might engage in this discussion to demonstrate that they need to use the words from the vocabulary bank to explain their response.
The task instructions were specific and sequential, and I gave clear behavioural expectations: pupils should be treated with respect by allowing each person to finish their thought without interruption. All of this guidance helps to ensure that this talk activity will support pupils to think hard and learn.
Presenter key ideas
In this video, we have considered the purpose of classroom talk and how to ensure that it’s effective. Before we finish, spend a few moments reading the key ideas. Which of these ideas do you feel that the example illustrates the best?
- Plan classroom talk carefully around what you want pupils to think about
- Provide appropriate support
- Give clear task instructions that include behavioural expectations
Presenter summary
Pair and group talk activities can increase pupil success but to work together effectively pupils need guidance, support, and practice.