Academic Conversations

A Presentation by David IrwinLanguage Development Opportunities

East Valley School DistrictMarch 20, 2014

Outcomes

I will be able to improve my students’ achievement through the

use of higher order questioning and discussion techniques Attain Distinguished level on Component 3b

Engage my student in cognitively challenging activities

Teach my students the skills of initiating or adapting conversations and/or activities, and adjusting their own grouping arrangements for best learning. Attain Distinguished level on Component 3c

Based on Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings by Jeff Zwiers & Maria Crawford. Stenhouse, 2011.

What is an Academic Conversation?

An academic conversation goes beyond casual conversation. The goal is for the participants to reach a new understanding of a school topic through the use of specific conversational skills. Each partner must listen and speak, elaborate, clarify, challenge, paraphrase, and summarize what his/her partner says, and determine the outcome of the conversation.

Review the Research for ELLs ELLs benefit from Big 5 reading instruction,

more so in word-level skills. Text level skills – comprehension and writing –

are closely aligned with oral language development.

Focus on systematic high quality vocabulary instruction

MAJOR THEME: “The importance of intensive, interactive language development instruction for all English learners. This instruction needs to focus on developing academic language.”

August & Shanahan (2006) and Gertsen et al (2007) in Honigsfeld & Dove (2010)

Common Core Listening Speaking Standards Kindergarten

Comprehension and Collaboration1. Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about

kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the

topics and texts under discussion).b. Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.

2. Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

3. Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas4. Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and

support, provide additional detail.

5. Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.

6. Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

Common Core Listening Speaking Standards Grade 3

Comprehension and Collaboration1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with

diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that

preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.b. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others

with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).c. Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments

to the remarks of others.d. Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion.

2. Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

3. Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas4. Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant,

descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.

5. Create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at an understandable pace; add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details.

6. Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification. (See grade 3 Language standards 1 and 3 on pages 28 and 29 for specific expectations.)

Common Core Listening Speaking Standards Grade 5

Comprehension and Collaboration1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled)

with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and

other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.b. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles.c. Pose and respond to specific questions by making comments that contribute to the discussion and elaborate on the

remarks of others.d. Review the key ideas expressed and draw conclusions in light of information and knowledge gained from the

discussions. 2. Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including

visually, quantitatively, and orally. 3. Summarize the points a speaker makes and explain how each claim is supported by reasons and

evidence. Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas4. Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate facts

and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

 5. Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when

appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes. 6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, using formal English when appropriate to task and

situation. (See grade 5 Language standards 1 and 3 on pages 28 and 29 for specific expectations.)

Whole Brain Teaching

First Grade intro http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=D668Jl6zuAk Third Grade math

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ-1WovRYYs

More links from there Scaffolding Teach/OK

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcZJ7tozYl0 wholebrainteaching.com/

Whole Brain Teaching

Intro to Whole Brain Teaching Third Grade Part 1 First Grade Scoreboard Scaffolding Teach/OK Fifth Grade Math wholebrainteaching.com/ Seventh Grade Science – mirror Sixth Grade Science - mirror

Class/Yes

Teachers says “Class” Vary the tone, speed, pitch, etc

Students respond “Yes” Same tone, speed, pitch as the teacher

Teach/OK

Teach “Teach/OK” in scaffolded steps: Teacher: clap clap “teach”

Students: clap clap “ok” Vary the clap patterns▪ Rhythms, Travolta move, swim, shoulder brush, etc

Practice with feedback until smooth Full body turn to partner Return to front: “Class”/”Yes” (no clapping) Add big gestures related to content

Ex: What’s your favorite food? Spaghetti (with wiggly spaghetti fingers)

What are the benefits?

What benefits (or challenges) can you see with Whole Brain Teaching so far?

Getting Started

All students have common information Read a text Heard a read aloud

Practice one skill at a time, build on them Facilitator

Be as quiet as possible Avoid “rescuing” – providing a word or idea for a student Model the skill frames In early stages, pause for progress checks on the conversation

goals – which skills used, etc. Mini-lessons

Teacher model Student pairs model with coaching

Make a Conversation Poster see Teaching ideas, Questions, Answers

Getting Started

Effective conversations Both partners talk Critical and creative thinking Welcome controversy and conflict Follow norms Share knowledge and skills Provide choice and ownership

Conversation Norms

We listen to each other We share our own ideas and explain them We respect another’s ideas, even if they are

different We let others finish explaining an idea

without interrupting We take turns and share air time

Elaborate and Clarify: Questions

Questions ask for specific information. Try these:

Can you elaborate on…? What do you mean by…? Can you tell me more about…? What makes you think that? Can you clarify the part about …? Can you be more specific? How so? How/Why is that important? I wonder if …? I’m a little confused about the part…

Elaborate and Clarify: Questions

Questions:

Can you elaborate on…?Can you tell me more about…?

Can you clarify the part about …?

Can you be more specific?

Elaborate and Clarify: Answers

Answers can be direct or through analogy.

One example is… It’s like when…

Elaborate and Clarify: Answers

Answers :

One example is… It’s like when…

Sketch to Stretch

Visualize Draw what you see when the reader

pauses Or when there is a natural break in the

narrative Or as a response to a question or prompt

Verbalize Write or discuss your drawing with a

partner

Hammerfest

“On my sixteenth day in Hammerfest, it happened. I was returning from the headland after my morning walk and in an empty piece of sky above the sky there appeared a translucent cloud of many colors – pinks and greens and blues and pale purples. It glimmered and seemed to swirl. Slowly it stretched across the sky. It had an oddly oily quality about it, like the rainbows you sometimes see in a pool of petrol. I stood transfixed.

I knew from my reading that the Northern Lights are immensely high up in the atmosphere, something like two hundred miles up, but this show seemed to be suspended just above the town. There are two kinds of Northern Lights – the curtains of shimmering gossamer that everyone has seen in pictures, and the rarer gas clouds that I was gazing at now. They are never the same twice. Sometimes they shoot wraithlike across the sky, like smoke in a wind tunnel, moving at enormous speed, and sometimes they hang like luminous drapes of glittering spears of light, and very occasionally – perhaps once or twice in a lifetime – they creep out from every point on the horizon and flow together overhead in a spectacular, silent explosion of light and color.

Draw what y0u see

Tell you shoulder partner what you saw in your mind

In the depthless blackness of the countryside, where you may be a hundred miles from the nearest artificial light, they are capable of the most weird and unsettling optical illusions. They can seem to come out of the sky and fly at you at enormous speed, as if trying to kill you. Apparently, it’s terrifying. To this day, many Lapps earnestly believe that if you show the lights a white handkerchief or a sheer of white paper, they will come and take you away.

This display was relatively small stuff, and it lasted for only a few minutes, but it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and it would do me until something better came along.

Draw what y0u see

Tell you shoulder partner what you saw in your mind

In the evening, something did – a display of lights that went on for hours. They were of only one color, that eerie luminous green you see on radar screens, but the activity was frantic. Narrow swirls of light would sweep across the great dome of sky, then hang there like vapor trails. Sometimes they flashed across the sky like falling stars and sometimes they spun languorously, reminding me of the lazy way smoke used to rise from my father’s pipe when he was reading. Sometimes the lights would flicker brightly in the west, then vanish in an instant and reappear a moment later behind me, as if teasing me. I was constantly turning and twisting to see it all. You have no idea how immense the sky is until you try to monitor it all. The eerie thing was how silent it was. Such activity seemed to demand at the very least an occasional low boom or a series of staticlike crackles, but there was none. All the immense energy was spent without a sound. “

Draw what y0u see

Tell you shoulder partner what you saw in your mind

Questioning Activities

“Leaf” questions are “above ground”, literal comprehension knowledge level Answer is in the text

“Root” questions are “buried”, higher order thinking questions Information leading to the answer is in

the text, but not the exact answer

Leaf & Root Questions

REMEMBERING• RT. I can repeat it. What does it say?

UNDERSTANDING• TS. I can explain it. What does it mean?

APPLYING• TS. I can use it. How can I use it?

ANALYZING• TS/OYO. I can take it apart and see how it is put together. What are it’s

parts and how do they work together?

EVALUATING• OYO. I can decide what is good or bad, true or false, strong or weak,

useful or useless. What are it’s good and bad qualities and how do I judge them?

CREATING• TS/OYO. I can put it together in a new way. How can I modify or

improve it?

Bloom’s Taxonomy

http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/blooms-taxonomy-20/

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Still the Best

http://mysciencelessons.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/blooms-taxonomy-verb-wheel/

Description Teaching Tips for ELL

•Students write questions related to the content on cards. Must know the answer.

Level 1 students may write questions in L1.

•Students mill around the room to music.•When the music stops, they form a pair and ask each other their question.

Level 1 students partner with students who speak their own language. Level 2 may partner in L1 for their first pairing.

•If the answerer knows the answer, they say it. If not, the questioner explains the answer.

•Student trade cards. •Music begins, students mill and find new partners.

Activities for Turning Up the Volume – Quiz Quiz Trade

Elaborate and Clarify: Teaching Collect examples of analogies & metaphors Opinion Continuum Journal Jumpstarts Modeling I do:

Show the norms Show the skill – what it is, the frames Frames on posters and desksize placemats, color coded

– kids make them Read text, give question Model with another adult Other students watch for frames used – signal

somehow… Video & review the lessons (Marci will organize)

Elaborate and Clarify: Frames by Grade Level K-2

Grade

Questions Answers

K What do you mean by…?Porque piensas eso?

Tell me more about….Dime mas sobre…

I mean…Yo pienso….

I think that…Yo pienso que….

1 What do you mean by…?Tell me more about….Can you elaborate on…?I wonder how/if….

I mean…By that I meant….I think that…

2 What do you mean by…?Tell me more about….Can you elaborate on…?I wonder how/if….What makes you think that?Can you be more specific?

I mean…By that I meant….I think that…It’s similar to when…

Elaborate and Clarify: Frames by Grade Level 3-5

Grade

Questions Answers

3What do you mean by…?Tell me more about….Can you elaborate on…?I wonder how/if….What makes you think that?Can you be more specific?How does that connect to…?Why is that important?

I mean…By that I meant….I think that…It’s similar to when…In other words…According to .…It’s important because…I believe that…

4-5

What do you mean by…?Tell me more about….Can you elaborate on…?I wonder how/if….What makes you think that?Can you be more specific?How does that connect to…?Why is that important?I’m confused about the part….Can you clarify the part about…?

I mean…By that I meant….I think that…It’s similar to when…In other words…According to…It’s important because…I believe that…An analogy for this might be…More specifically, it is…because…

Support Ideas with Examples: Teaching

The Hunt for Deep Ideas. What makes you stop & think? Write quotations on cards.

Plan the conversation on an organizer

Evaluate the support (quality) of examples on a continuum:

Idea Example

The Red Sox are a great team. They won the World Series eight times. (1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918,2004,2007, 2013)

They have 74 players in the Hall of Fame.

IDEA

Weak support Med Support Strong support

Support Ideas with Examples: Answers

For example, … In the text (on page..) it said … For instance, … According to… In this situation…

Support Ideas with Examples

Grade

Questions Answers

K-1 Like what? Como que?Such as?Why did you say that?

The picture showed….The story said…

2-3

Can you show me where it says that?Can you provide text-based evidence?What is a real life example?

In the text it said that…According to…For instance,…For example,….

4-5

What is an example from your life?How do you justify that?Why is that a good example?What would illustrate that?Are there any cases of that?

On one occasion,…One case showed that…An illustration of this could be…To demonstrate,…An example from my life is…Indeed,…

Paraphrase: Teaching

Listeners set aside their own thinking Listeners tell as much of what they

heard as possible Listeners question the speaker for

clarification

Paraphrase: Questions

I’m not sure that was clear. What do we know so far? What is your take on what I said? Does that make sense?

Paraphrase: Answers

So, you are saying that… Let me see if I understand you. In other words, … What I’m hearing is…

Paraphrase: Frames by Grade Level K-2

Grade

Questions Answers

K-1 What? Que?What did you say? Que dijistes?

I said… Yo dije….Well,… Pues,….

2-3

Can you say that again?Please repeat what you said.I can’t remember what you said.

So, you are saying that…Let me see if I understand you.In other words, …What I’m hearing is…

4-5

I’m not sure that was clear. Can you repeat that?What did you hear me say?

What I heard you say…Essentially, you think …In a nutshell, what you’re saying is…

Questions

What are your questions? Write several; use the taxonomies Ask them to your partner. Take turns. Support your answers from the text Paraphrase your partner’s answers

Build on &/or Challenge a Partner’s Ideas: Teaching

Read two texts, opposing views Two-minute Opinion Share

Give the partners a controversial question.

Assign one partner A, one B A gets 1 minute to defend her/her side

of the question B must challenge A’s position Third minute is for consensus

Build – and use – a set of norms

Build on & Challenge a Partner’s Ideas

Grade

Questions Answers

K-1 Do you agree? Piensas igual?What are your ideas? Que son tus pensamientos?Can you say more? Puedes decir mas?

I agree because… Estoy de acuerdo porque…I disagree because… No estoy de acuerdo porque…I think that… Yo pienso que….

2-3

How does that connect to….?Can you add to this idea?Can you show where the text supports that?

I would add that…I want to follow up on your idea…I respectfully disagree because…Another way to think about this is…Going back to what you said before…

4-5

How can we bring this back to the text?What might be other points of view?

Yet I wonder also if…What struck me about what you said…I want to expand on your point about…

Conversation Norms - Challenge We listen to each other We share our own ideas and explain them We respect another’s ideas, even if they are

different We respectfully disagree and try to

see the other view We let others finish explaining an idea

without interrupting We try to come to some agreement in the

end We take turns and share air time

Opinion Continuum

Students place their own personal arrow where their opinion falls.

Jelly beans are better than M&Ms.

Yes No

Build on &/or Challenge a Partner’s Ideas: Questions

Can you add to that idea? Do you agree? How does that connect to…? What are some other ideas?

Build on &/or Challenge a Partner’s Ideas: Answers

I want to add to your point that… Connecting to that, … Another way to look at that is… If __________, then __________. I wonder if….

Synthesize

Grade

Questions Answers

K-1 What did we learn? Que aprendimos?What was important? Que era importante?What did we talk about? De que hablamos?

We said that… Decimos que…We learned… Aprendimos…..We talked about… Hablamos de…

2-3

What have we discussed so far?What can we agree upon?What main ideas can we share?

We can say that…We have discussed…The main theme/point seems to be…

4-5

How can we synthesize what we’re talking about?What key idea(s) can we take away?

As a result if this conversation, we think …The evidence seems to suggest that…

Synthesize Conversation Points: Teaching

Parking, Promoting, Pruning Park distracting thoughts Promote your new idea (requires safe

environment) Prune unhelpful thoughts (off topic, not

relevant)

Synthesize Conversation Points: Questions

What have we discussed so far? How can we bring this all together? What can we agree on? What are the main points? What was the original question?

Synthesize Conversation Points: Answers

We can say that… The main point seems to be… How does this sound? We think we should…

Use of Prompts and Questions

Teacher generated

Student generated

Connect each skill to prompt – fig. 4.3

Complete a task first - fig. 4.4

Deepen the Practice

Students take on more responsibility to deepen the conversations:

Whole Brain Teaching: Teach/OK Pairs invite singletons to join them Pairs change If one pair member won’t talk, other member

may join another pair Each pair monitors itself – point value

(eventually) Baseline and improvement data

Students monitor conversations with checklists Recognition for great conversations

Watch for:

Disputes▪ Which skills could move this conversation forward?

“The Red Sox are a great team.” “The Yankees are better.” “The Red Sox by far.” “You don’t know anything.”

Accumulation▪ Which skills could move this conversation forward?

and then…and then… and then… Information is added, but there is no critical

questioning

Watch for:

Procedural talk▪ Which skills could move this conversation

forward? Students talk about what they should be

doing or discussing, who should be next, etc. rather than exploring the topic.

Assessment

Informal: ask students how many skills they used

More formal: Skill checklist on clipboard Teacher roams, checks some or all

conversations One student listens and checks 2 talkers.

Rotate. (Who checks the checker?)

Pick a Content Area

Connect with your own teaching partners

Decide how you will apply one or more of these skills

IT IS OK TO TAKE IT SLOW Try one skill at a time Stick with it for awhile until if feels

natural There is no hurry, there’s just taking the

next step

Thank you for your time today!