The On-Your-Feet Guide to Partner Talk (On-Your-Feet-Guides)

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Reading Logs: Focused on Reading Comprehension and Strategies (14 different reading logs each with 3 different leveled worksheets). Perfect for differentiated homework. However, because it’s a classroom staple, you may not have thought any more deeply than, “This is a good thing to do, I’ll add it to the lesson plan.” The majority of teachers felt they needed more than two terms to fully embed the approach in their classrooms and thought it would have more impact over alonger time period One of the biggest benefits when it comes to talk partners is building children’s confidence. Pupils who are less confident to speak in class can discuss their ideas with a peer. This helps them to articulate their thinking. When the goal is for the rapid sharing of ideas, with multiple people, the doughnut sharing technique is appropriate. This technique involves a large group of students, such as the whole class, forming two circles – an inner circle and an outer circle. Students in the inner and outer circle find partners and face each other.

We know that the nature and quality of teaching practice in the classroom has abig impact on pupil learning. Pilots of dialogic teaching in the UK have suggested that it can change teachers’ practice, and there is other evidence that cognitively challenging classroom talk can lead to gains for pupils in language, mathematics and science, but this is the first trial of this approach.

Strategy in Practice

The first time you want children to use talk partners, choose one of your more confident pupils and model it with them. Ask another child (or your TA) to pose a question to you. Then model a short discussion with your volunteer. For Partner Talk to be effective in the classroom, there are five steps that must be executed by the teacher:

In pairs, discuss 3 new things you have learnt or what you found easy or difficult or something you would like to learn in the future. Why use it The intervention was highly regarded by headteachers, mentors, and teachers who thought that the Dialogic Teaching approach had positive effects on pupil confidence and engagement. Providing each member of the group with a few tokens or counters is a useful technique, when establishing the protocols for talk in the classroom, or encouraging fair participation. Each group member is provided with a few tokens. Each time a contribution is made, the student places aside a token. When all tokens have been placed aside, the student is no longer able to contribute to the discussion. Two colour tokens may be given, one to represent talk contributions and the other to represent questions to pose to the group. EEF will explore options for testing the approach using amodel that could be made available to alarge number of schools. Think, pair, share is an easy and engaging talk technique. At any stage of the lesson, students may be asked to ‘turn and talk’. The purpose of the technique may vary. At the beginning of a lesson, students may be asked to think, pair, share early connections or predictions. During an inquiry, students may be asked to share ideas, challenges or opinions. While at the end of a unit of work, students might share their reflections.

Talk partner dos and don’ts

For example: Groups of four students are formed. A Level 2 study of minibeasts may be divided into sub topics of insects, arachnids, molluscs and annelids. In my classroom we changed talk partners every week. I recommend not keeping the same partners for more than two weeks. Planning for talk partners The majority of participating teachers felt that it would take longer than two terms to fully embed aDialogic Teaching approach in their classrooms. It could therefore be valuable to test the impact of the intervention over alonger period.

Try: “Artem, I saw you were really listening to Anna while she was talking because you were looking at her and asking questions. Great work.” The doughnut technique is useful for the generation of ideas, perhaps before an individual brainstorm. It is also useful for recalling information, sharing anecdotes or offering opinions. 3. Talk tokens The success of talk partners is that it gets children involved and engaged in their learning – something most of us would agree is important in helping children to progress.Partner Talk Comprehension Activities: 17 conversation starters and comprehension activities that can be used throughout the year. Perfect for partner talks, read aloud discussion prompts and guided reading groups (sentence starters that are very helpful for English Language Learners).

Another benefit is the increase in thinking time. You might fall into the trap of not giving enough time for this. Properly planning to use talk partners ensures more thinking time. This then lead to more articulate answers, which leads to better engagement for all.Another benefit of talk partners is the amazing opportunity it gives you and the other adults in the room to observe and listen to children doing something incredibly important: talking. Challenges you may face Vocabulary in Context: Worksheets and strategy sheets that can be used to help students determine the meaning of words in context (great for test prep, English Language Learners or Vocabulary Lessons). Secondly, how you choose to use the strategy can hinder more than it helps. For instance, you might plan to use the strategy at the wrong time or let the talking go on too long. These were both problems I encountered when I first started using the approach in the classroom. Before posing the questions to students, make sure that you have strategically paired up students so that they can have thoughtful conversations. In general, typical students should be paired with students who are a bit above-average thinkers, and higher students should be paired with other students who are capable of higher-level thinking. ELL students should be paired with a student with grade-level/average vocabulary. Talk partners can be one of the easiest and most useful tools you have as a teacher. Plan when to use them. Use open-ended questions. Change your talk partners often. Involve yourself in the discussions and praise, praise, praise.