“Turn and talk” has become a common practice in classrooms. But what’s really happening in those conversations?

Frequently, we’ve noticed that students each share what they are thinking and then they are done. There is no intent to construct meaning, to explore each other’s ideas, to walk away with thinking that has been transformed in some way (Nichols, 2019).

The problem may be that students don’t understand what we mean by “talk.” They may not be familiar with what participants in a conversation have to do to engage in meaningful conversations on academic topics (e.g., acknowledge or build onto others’ ideas, ask for clarification, express a contrasting opinion).

They may also not have the language or academic vocabulary needed to take part in these conversations. This may be especially true for the English language learners in our classroom. So what can we do?

My colleague Alma Ortiz-Agib and I share some ideas in an article at middleweb.com including how to offer language frames – which our EL students find very helpful. (Thanks for clicking the link!)

Hope this helps.

S