Across the CurriculumAcross the Curriculum

West Jacksonville ElementaryA. Bright and L. Derby

Accountable Talk – What?

Talking with others about ideas and work is fundamental to learning. But, not all talk sustains learning. For classroom talk to promote learning it must be accountable – to the learning community, to accurate and appropriate knowledge, and to rigorous thinking.

Accountable Talk – What?

• seriously responds to and further develops what others in the group have said

• puts forth and demands knowledge that is accurate and relevant to the issue under discussion

• requires active listening• uses evidence appropriate to the

discipline (e.g., proof in mathematics, data from experiments in science, textual details in literature, documentary sources in history) and follows established norms of good reasoning

• All teachers must intentionally create the norms and skills of accountable talk in their classrooms

ACCOUNTABILITY ACCOUNTABILITY and and

ACCOUNTABLE ACCOUNTABLE TALKTALK

Knowledge

Rigorous Thinking

Learning Community

“As classroom teachers we are really effective at teaching students how to monologue, NOT how to dialogue.”

THINK ABOUT IT!

What does this mean?

Accountable Talk

In classrooms where high

levels of student

engagement and

accountable talk is

prevalent:

• Students are able to explain the relationship between the discussion and the stated learning objective.

• The teacher and students ask questions that require synthesis, analysis, problem solving, and application of learning.

• Students return to the text and other data sources to support their positions or challenge positions taken by others in the discussion.

• All students take an active role in discussions, using agreed upon norms.

• Anchor charts that outline norms for discussions and specific group discussion strategies are displayed.

• The teacher uses different discussion strategies and routines (i.e. pairs, small group, full class, turn and talk, think-pair-share; fishbowl, inside/outside circles,) appropriate to the lesson’s learning objective and the learning needs of students.

• The teacher models these strategies and routines and gradually releases responsibility to students for leading discussions, with the teacher periodically acting as a participant or facilitator.

• Students and the teacher use rubrics to assess the quality of classroom discussions (content and process).

• The teacher observes discussions and uses observation data to inform instruction (conference logs).

MATH WORKSHOP

READERS WORKHSOP

WRITERS WORKSHOP

SCIENCE WORKSHOP

Accountable Talk Rubric

4 Discusses activity at all timesUses target vocabularyGives multiple reasons for answers including strategies

usedIncludes non-speakersCreates a respectful learning community

3 Discusses activity the majority of the timeUses some target vocabularyGives reason(s) for answers including strategies usedIncludes some non-speakersCreates a respectful learning community

2 Discusses activity some of the timeUses little target vocabularyGives answers without reasons or strategiesDoes not include non-speakersAttempts to create a respectful learning community

1 Does not discuss activity Uses no target vocabularyGives answers without reasons or strategiesDoes not include non-speakersDoes not attempt to create a respectful learning

community

Classroom posters ILLUSTRATING ILLUSTRATING

STRATEGIESSTRATEGIES to help facilitate talk.

(Yourself)

(With a partner)

(Whole class)

Why? Tell me more! Give an

example.

Defend your

reasoning

against a different

point of view.

How did you arrive at

your answer?

Redirect a question back to

the person.

Make one’s thinking public and

demonstrate expert forms of reasoning

through talk.

Restate and make public a person or group’s discussion and understanding.

Ensure that everyone is heard and

understands what a person says.

Make explicit the relationship between a new contribution and what was said

before.

Revoice a person’s

contributions.

Hold everyone accountable for the accuracy,

credibility, and clarity of their contributions.

Tie a current contribution

back to knowledge

accumulated by a person or the class at a pervious time.

Press for evidence and

understanding of a person’s

statements.

Give extra time and space in the

conversation to expand reasoning.

• YES/NO CARDS• THINK CARDS (GREEN

AND ORANGE)• 5 FINGERS• HEADS DOWN/HANDS UP

• One idea I had was…

• To add to his/her (__________’s) idea, I was thinking…

• My idea was similar to his/hers…

• My idea was different from his/hers…

• Could you please explain what you mean so I can understand better ?

• Can you point out in the text where you got that idea?

• I hear what you are saying…can you show me the evidence from the text to support that statement?

• I think/don’t think ____ is right because…

• That’s an interesting way to think of …

• My idea is similar to…

• That reminds me of…

• What I’m hearing you say is…

• You’re saying that… • In other words…

• I still have a question about…

•As I was saying…

•Could you say that again?

•In my opinion,

•Gee, I hadn’t thought of that…

•Did you mean?

•My evidence from the text is on page_____, where it says, “_____________________.”

•I agree/don’t agree with (name) because…

•I see what you mean…

What to Look For:

This video highlights a Second Grade class

during Reader’s Workshop. In typical

mini-lesson format, the teacher shares with the

students what she noticed when she

conferred with them during their independent

reading time..

LOOK FORS . . . • In what ways are these

students holding themselves accountable to the community? to a standard of reasoning?

• How might the classroom conversation seen here help students become better readers?

• What strategies that we have covered today were highlighted in the video?

• What will this look like in your classroom?

• What are your first steps in accomplishing this?

References• Adapted from BPS @

http://boston.k12.ma.us/teach/priorities06-07.pdf

• Principles of Learning: Study Tools for Educators. CDRom, University of Pittsburgh, 2003.