Conversation: A Powerful Tool

Conversation: A Powerful Tool

By Wendy Sheets, Intermediate Literacy Trainer

After spending three days in professional development with a group of amazing literacy coaches recently, I can’t help but ponder the power of conversation. Over and over, I heard remarks about appreciating having time to talk with other professionals, to reflect upon successes and challenges, and to find encouragement through those conversations. Sometimes we need to just listen to others’ ideas as we process and synthesize what they’re saying. And at other times, our own sharing helps us to clarify our beliefs, perhaps solving problems or noticing new ones, and at times just affirming that our voices matter. Isn’t that how we create meaning, either learning something new or shaping what we already know? Conversation is powerful. “Essentially we are social beings and our brains grow in a social environment…we often forge meaning through socializing…Talking, sharing, and discussing are critical; we are biologically wired for language and communicating with one another” (Jenson, 1998, p. 93).

Interactive Read-Aloud 

Let’s think about conversation within a few different contexts, beginning with interactive read-aloud. When a classroom community has been created and children feel comfortable taking risks, what rich conversation takes place around a high-quality text! As purposeful talk is orchestrated and students engage in the negotiation of meaning, thinking is furthered. The dance of strategic actions begins, and students naturally make connections, predictions, and inferences, and they dig deeper to synthesize new ideas, along with thinking more critically and analytically about the text. “The experience provides unequaled opportunities for expanding background knowledge, vocabulary, literary knowledge, and shared language” (Fountas & Pinnell, 2006, p. xxxiv).

 Book Clubs  

Once effective talk is established during interactive read-aloud, readers naturally progress to building deep conversations during book clubs. “When students participate in book clubs, they talk, read, and often write in highly interactive ways. The central idea is that greater insight can be achieved when several people share their thinking, thus benefiting from each other’s understandings and perspectives. The discussion takes the form of an investigation as participants try out tentative ideas, search for information to confirm or refute their thinking, and build on one another’s ideas” (Fountas & Pinnell, 2006, p. 280). Inquiring becomes habitual as readers probe the meaning of text together. As meaning is constructed in a small group, readers achieve a greater understanding, a lift, if you will, than they would have alone.

Writing Conferences    

There is something very special about setting aside one-on-one time. My sons and I have our best conversations when travelling alone for long distances in the car. I think knowing we have the stretch of time, our talk is less inhibited, and becomes more meaningful. During writing conferences, we also set aside a special time, or meeting, to focus solely on one individual. We seek to discover our student’s needs, reinforce their strengths, and provide support, all the while lifting the writer, rather than the piece. And that needs to happen through effective conversation. Carl Anderson suggests several different conversational strategies for helping students talk about their writing (2000, p. 97). He recommends redirecting when a student talks about the content of their writing rather than their writing work. When students have some facility with talking about their writing work, he suggests reflecting and pausing, showing and describing, referring back to the last conference, and naming what is observed. When students need much support with talking about their work, he uses strategies to take a tour, describing what he thinks he sees the writer doing, and then making suggestions by asking specific questions that create options for the writer. Amplification allows him to demonstrate something while naming it, such as the use of carets or a circular structure, and finally, he asks for clarification when students need practice using writing discourse. Most importantly, I think we need to remember that a writing conference is a personal conversation that moves our writers forward. The work is generative, so that the learning becomes a part of the writer’s repertoire to use again and again.

 Coaching Conversations 

I would be remiss to leave out the power of conversation within a coaching context. According to Lyons and Pinnell (2001, pgs. 141-12), “Coaching emerges from the trusting context that surrounds the act of teaching…An effective coaching conversation has five essential features:

      1.      It is tied to a specific event that has just occurred.

2.      It takes place in the context of the teacher’s attempt to learn a specific technique or concept.

3.      It makes use of specific teacher and student actions as well as words.

4.      It includes reciprocal reflection and constructive dialogue between teacher and coach.

5.      It results in new learning and a plan of action to improve teaching.

The authors go on to discuss the fact that a real conversation has give-and-take with both participants making statements and asking questions, offering advice and help, clarifying for each other, and sharing experiences and hunches. It is through the wonderings, the hunches, that we become active learners.  

Think About It…

Think about the conversations that take place in your life. Are they productive? Full of give-and-take? Do they help you to reflect and clarify, and do they lift others in their thinking? When we come together to share our ideas, all of our contributions are woven together into a beautiful tapestry that covers our thinking and pushes us beyond our own walls. This is what happened with the literacy coaches in our professional development session I mentioned earlier. The stage was set, the pump was primed. Voicing ideas was bound to happen and everyone went away feeling refreshed and renewed with strengthened understandings and greater intentions. Let’s work to create the right atmosphere for purposeful conversation in every context in which we live as readers and writers. Our brains will thank us.

References

Anderson, C. 2000. How's It Going? Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. 2006. Teaching For Comprehending and Fluency. Portsmouth:
          Heinemann.
Jenson, E. 1998. Teaching With the Brain in Mind. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Lyons, C.A. & Pinnell, G.S. 2001. Systems For Change in Literacy Education: A Guide to
          Professional Development. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Nichols, M. 2006. Comprehension Through Conversation: The Power of Purposeful Talk in the
          Reading Workshop. Portsmouth: Heinemann.              

           

Supporting English Language Learners through the Literacy Collaborative Framework

Supporting English Language Learners through the Literacy Collaborative Framework

By: Jenny McFerin, K-2 Literacy Collaborative Trainer

Reflection on Research

I have been reading the book, English Learners: Reaching the Highest Level of English Literacy, edited by Gilbert G. Garcia (2003).  The book is a collection of chapters written by various authors and is a great resource for understanding the needs of English Language Learners. Through this reading I have learned about different instructional approaches schools use to support English Language Learners (ELL).  I have also recognized that the Literacy Collaborative framework for teaching and learning are connected to those instructional approaches that are most effective for our ELL.

In the chapter, Revisioning the Blueprint: Building for the Academic Success of English Learners (Garcia & Beltran, 2003), it is proposed that ELL students can succeed in classrooms that provide strong teaching with frameworks that are research based.  One approach is the implementation of a ‘Fifth Reading Block.’   This instructional approach is grounded in literacy and offers multiple opportunities for discussion about content.

Instructional Implications

There are several connections between our framework for teaching and learning and what Garcia and Beltran define as the fifth reading block (Garcia & Beltran, 2003). They state, “The key to success is that students must be required to produce oral language in each phase of the day’s lesson appropriate to their level of language acquisition.  Interaction is an essential ingredient of each phase: Cooperative activities that promote collaboration between and among students are staples of this instruction (p.213).”  Some key components of instruction during this block are:

1. Lessons should be literature based.  Literature is a strong model for language, it provides opportunities to connect to content, and it provides opportunities for discussion.
2. Lessons should have a focus on standards.  Through literature, teachers can teach strategies for learning the language and literacy.
3. Strategies should be modeled and taught explicitly through teacher think-alouds.  English language learners need repetition and redundancy in order to take on new learning.
4. Oral Language is essential. Students need opportunity to talk with peers and with the teacher.  Through discussions and cooperative activities, students can experiment with the language they are learning.  Readers Theatre is another opportunity to practice language.
5. Strategies for tapping into schema and building vocabulary should be incorporated.  Building background knowledge through multi-media resources, primary language translations, or concrete examples will only provide a richer understanding for students.
6. Writing extends the thinking and discussion in the classroom.  Engaging students in the writing process will further support understanding of the language.

Connection to Literacy Collaborative Framework

Upon reading this I immediately connected to our framework for teaching and learning.  Two facets that stood out to me were Read Aloud and Interactive Writing (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996) and encompass all of the components listed above.
During Interactive Read-Aloud and Literature Discussion the teacher promotes thinking Within, Beyond, and About the text (Pinnell & Fountas, 2001,2008) by choosing intentional stopping points in the text.  During these stopping points, the teacher engages students in conversations. The teacher can either model her thinking or have students talk together.
Through Interactive Writing (McCarrier, Pinnell, & Fountas, 2000), students can extend their thinking and understanding about the texts that have been read aloud.  This process supports both comprehension and word work (Pinnell & Fountas, 2001,2008).

Conclusion

There are several challenges English Language Learners (ELLs) face when entering our classrooms:

1. ELLs are expected to learn all the nuances of literacy while learning the English Language.
2. ELLs are expected to learn skills in the same sequence as their English speaking peers.
3. Most often ELLs are immersed in English without the support of their known, their native language.

Despite these challenges, we often remove children from the classroom in order to provide opportunities for skill and drill practice.  The greatest support we can offer students who enter our classrooms who are learning English is to immerse them in our already literature-rich communities.
How are you supporting English Language Learners in your classroom?


Bibliography

Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (1996). Guided Reading: Good First Teaching for All Children. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Garcia, G. G., & Beltran, D. (2003). Revisioning the Blueprint: Building for the Academic Success of English Learners. In G. G. Garcia, & G. G. Garcia (Ed.), English Learners: Reaching the Highest Level of English Literacy (pp. 197-258). Newark, Delaware, USA: International Reading Association, Inc.

McCarrier, A., Pinnell, G. S., & Fountas, I. C. (2000). Interactive Writing: How Language and Literacy Cometogether, K-2. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Pinnell, G. S., & Fountas, I. C. (2001,2008). The Continuum of Literacy Learning Grades PreK-8: A Guide to Teaching. Portsmouth: Heinnemann.