The book “Classroom Discussions” begins by sharing the five different talk moves that promote students learning. These are revoicing, repeating, reasoning, adding on, and wait time. The “talk move” that stood out the most to me was the last one, wait time. Wait time is the period of silence after a teacher asks a question and students give their responses. In a typical classroom room, teachers will only usually wait 1.5 seconds. It is shown however, that even when teachers wait 3 seconds, many positive things happen. The number of “I don’t know” decreased and the length and intelligence behind the responses increased.
The talk move that I chose is challenging because it is so hard not to jump in or interrupt students while they are sitting thinking. Having a discussion with my CT he said that it takes a long time to get used to waiting and when he first started teaching he would only allow a second or so for students to answer because he did not want to embarrass them for not knowing the answer, but then he said that really might not have been the case at all. That the student just might need a second or two to really think about what the answer may be. While observing at the beginning of the school year I noticed a few times how my CT would kind look like he was going to start talking and then not say anything, catching himself from speaking too soon. I also like how if you ask the whole class a question and provide sufficient wait time that more and more students can figure it out on their own and raise their hands before one of their classmates tells them the answer.
It is interesting how we all picked to discuss wait time. I think this is because as new teachers, we are not use to using it. I know personally I feel like I always need to fill silence or that when it's quiet, it means the students don't understand what I am asking. However, this assumption can be very wrong. My CT also uses wait time very frequently and it is extremely effective in our classroom. Allowing the students time to think opens up the discussion to involve more students. As for the students who always raise their hands right away, this wait time gives them more time to think deeper into their response and listen to the full question. Wait time is very beneficial from what I have seen but I know I definitely need to practice!
ReplyDeleteI also talked about wait time as my chosen talk move. After reading this chapter I tried it this week while correcting bellwork with the students. In my 3rd grade class there are a few students who always raise their hands to answer questions. I know there are others who often have correct answers as well, they are just less eager to share them with the class. I tried waiting just a couple seconds longer than usual and I was very pleased to see that a few more students raised their hands and I was able to call on someone different. I've also noticed that my CT will acknowledge students who always raise their hand, but gently remind them that others need a turn too. I will definitely use this talk move more as I move into my guided lead teaching. Wait time is especially important in math where answers are often very exact and specific. Students need time to think through the situation presented and really understand what they are noticing and realizing.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is important to not only have correct wait time when the students are answering questions, but it's really important to ask the questions the students are going to be able to answer in a group setting to make them feel comfortable speaking in front of the whole class. My teacher often goes around while the students are working and passes out "tickets" that allow the students to share their idea- which she has already checked out secretly and found interesting. This gives the students a confidence boost but it also allows for people who might not participate a lot in class to participate comfortably. This really eliminates the wait time for specific subjects- something that is not only useful but really effective in the use of classroom time.
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