AskMeno

According to The National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning, 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲, or House Framework, necessary for school readiness¹.

Academic talk, or classroom conversation, represents the pinnacle of engaging interactions and high-quality classroom environments. Academic talk is more formal and uses many tier-2 and -3 vocabulary, longer sentences, and more complicated grammar.

Although early learning classes are full of talk, not all classroom talk is equally meaningful. Consider the range of classroom types on the conversation spectrum:

🗣️𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗗𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 (In a study of 20,000 classrooms, 89% of talking comes from the teacher. This classroom is heavily oriented around teacher talk. See more here: https://bit.ly/4c6hyTM)

🗣️𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗼𝘂𝘀, 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗗𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 (Although there are many talk opportunities, they are unplanned and largely casual conversations.)

🗣️𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗰, 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰, 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁-𝗜𝗻𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝘆-𝗗𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 (Teachers intentionally plan for rich-language conversation opportunities using evidenced-based practices and make ample room for eliciting student inquiry as part of academic talk².)

Assessing and improving the classroom conversation climate begins with leadership prioritizing the necessary instructional infrastructure to support it.

Having a conversation count mindset enables schools to determine if every student is having at least 5 conversational turns per day (Strive-for-five model: https://bit.ly/4aRFkSe) and to design effective activities to promote this. Additionally, there are students who require more scaffolding and frequent conversation practice in the classroom setting.

When schools intentionally plan for conversations throughout the day with each learner, studies have found that children exhibit greater gains in language development and academic domains compared to children in lower-quality classrooms³.

Refer to the image example of a classroom conversation planner to make the most of every talk opportunity.

Is your district strategically planning to enhance the early classroom’s foundation of the House Framework this upcoming school year?

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Sources:

¹ https://bit.ly/4e7H2Sd
² https://bit.ly/4e9uLgq
³ https://bit.ly/3KuHBba