Let's Talk!

Strengthen Student Led Discussion with Accountable Talk

in the Adult Basic Education/English as a Second Language Classroom

By Diana McIntyre, Nevada State Leadership-Professional Development Coordinator

In order for students to be committed to their education and become college and career ready, they must become active classroom participants.  What better way to involve students in their education than by providing opportunities for students to participate in student led discussion in small collaborative groups?  Ideally, class time should consist of at least 50% productive student discussion. 

Student Led Practice

The Workshop Teaching Model is designed around student practice.  Just as students in band rehearse regularly and learn to actively listen and effectively play together in an ensemble, students in the Adult Basic Education (ABE)/English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom acquire college and career readiness skills by meaningful reading, thinking, discussing, and writing-through student led practice during class.  What’s more, the Workshop Teaching Model requires students to do the majority of the work.

The Workshop Model asserts that the teacher provide direct instruction in the form of a rigorous mini-lesson for the first third of the class, students then engage in active discussion and relevant practice of their learning in small collaborative groups for half the class, and the teacher concludes by taking the last portion of class to guide students in recapping their learning. 

Accountable Talk

Getting students to discuss in small collaborative groups can be a challenge at first.  Students may not know how to begin an academic discussion; other students may be afraid to try to discuss unfamiliar topics in English.  Students require basic Accountable Talk Stems to guide discussion and keep students on topic.

Basic Accountable Talk                                       I think _____ because it says in the text on line…                                       I agree with _______ because in the text on line…                                       I disagree with _______ because in the text on line…                                       Where did you find your evidence?                                       Can you defend your answer?                                        Can you tell me more?                                       Can you please repeat that?

The College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) necessitate reading, writing, speaking, (and listening) grounded in evidence from text.  More often than not, one of the most daunting teacher tasks is getting students to discuss academic topics while using English skills.  

 Students need guidelines for how to appropriately discuss literature and refer to text.  Students require support in how to discuss and they must understand exactly what is expected of them, otherwise they will easily get off-task and revert to using their native language, alienating other classmates from the conversation. 

Importantly, Accountable Talk puts structures in place to guide students in building on the conversations and arguments of peers, teaches respectful agreement or disagreement as well as instructs how to politely ask for clarification or more information.  Moreover, Accountable Talk supports students’ increase of knowledge by learning to logically link their claims with evidence from text, and building factual arguments.  Valid, structured student discussion with Accountable Talk language stems benefits students by helping to break down classroom barriers, strengthen peer relationships and bond socialization to education.

Close Read Example

After a lesson in American symbols, a teacher may elect to provide the following Close Read for rich student led discussion with Accountable Talk stems.

 The Bald Eagle, a United States National Emblem

Adapted from www.baldeagleinfo.com/eagle/eagle

The bald eagle was chosen June 20, 1782 as the emblem of the United States of America, because of its long life, great strength and majestic looks, and also because it was then believed to exist only on this continent.

Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.  Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat.

Benjamin Franklin wrote:
     I wish that the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country, he is a bird of bad moral character, he does not get his living honestly, you may have seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the fishing-hawk, and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to its nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him and takes it from him.... Besides he is a rank coward; the little kingbird, not bigger than a sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest. . . of America.. . . For a truth, the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, a true original native of America . . . a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack British guards, who should presume to invade his farmyard with a red coat on.

     

 

Franklin was clearly against the eagle and let everyone know it. Likewise, the artist John James Audubon agreed with this opinion of the bald, or white-headed, eagle. 

Nevertheless, selected as our national bird, the eagle has appeared on all official seals of the United States, as well as on most coinage, paper money, and on many U.S. stamps. 

Because of their size, bald eagles are not concerned about threats from other birds. However, eagles are often chased by smaller birds, who are trying to protect their young. Bald eagles are unlikely to bother smaller birds or their young, which makes these efforts unnecessary. Eagles often ignore mobbing behavior by smaller birds. It was Benjamin Franklin's observations of a bald eagle either ignoring or retreating from such mobbing that probably led to his claim of the bald eagle's lack of courage.

Basic Accountable Talk

I think _____ because it says in the text on line...

I agree with ________ because in the text on line...

I disagree with ______ because in the text on line...

Where did you find your evidence?

Can you defend your answer?

Can you tell me more?

Can you please repeat that?

Text Based Questions for Student Led Discussion

1)  Using evidence from the text, explain Benjamin Franklin's sentiments about the bald eagle.

2)  What evidence in the passage supports Ben Franklin's claim that another bird should be our national bird?

3)  According to the passage, why does Ben Franklin refer to the bald eagle as a rank coward?  What facts does the author provide to defend the bald eagle?

Writing Activity

How is the bald eagle used as a national symbol in America?  Support your answer with evidence from the text.

If you tried the activity, let us know how it went in the comments section below.

What?! It’s Week Four and I’ve Already Lost 30% of my Students?

I recently attended the continuation of our Leadership Excellence Academies (LEA) training with my ABE colleagues in Nevada.  As part of our two-year program improvement training, we examined learner persistence and discussed how we can incorporate some persistence strategies into our program improvement plan.  While this may not sound very exciting to an instructor, what is exciting are the strategies that YOU can implement in your own classrooms to address learner persistence.

If you are a fan of research, you can read the detailed findings from the study involving 18 persistence action research projects involving 755 adult learners in five New England states here.  If you just want the basics, go to World Education’s Adult Learner Persistence website.  From there, begin by selecting “Program Self-Assessment” and, if you are an instructor, scroll down to the “Instruction” section (p. 4).  Complete the assessment by substituting “I” instead of “We” using the Likert-like scale across the top.

Next, click on the ‘Instruction’ tab to the left on the Adult Learner Persistence homepage and then select ‘Read more about specific strategies’ at the bottom of the page to locate strategies that correspond with your self-assessment.   You will find a plethora of evidence-based strategies to choose from.  Bonanza!  Consider conducting an action research project and looking at before-and-after attendance hours/completion rates or comparing two of your classes (one using a persistence strategy and one as a control – for one session).  Let us know what you discover.

What the New England Learner Persistence Project researchers found was that, after instructors implemented persistence strategies, attendance increased by 16% and completion rates increased by 22%.  Wow!  You can create this magic in your own classrooms with just a few modifications.

I am a huge fan of 'Strategy e'  Continually build community and sense of belonging in the class among students.'  A colleague introduced me to an activity that would fit nicely into this category:  “Fear in a Hat,”  

We both have used it on the first day class with great success.  Students complete the phrase, “In this program, I am [most] afraid that..." or "In this program, the worst thing that could happen to me would be..." on 3” x 5” cards and place the cards in a hat.  I prefer a goofy hat like a Viking helmet or magician’s hat.  Directions from the link:  Collect the pieces of paper, mix them around, then invite each person to a piece of paper and read about someone's fear.  One by one, each group member reads out the fear of another group member and elaborates and what he/she feels that person is most afraid of in this group/situation.  No one is to comment on what the person says, just listen and move on to the next person.

We have found that this activity breaks down barriers on the first day and leads to a profound discussion of fear and obstacles and, ultimately, how to overcome one's fears to succeed in the program.

If you are one of those instructors who love ice breakers, expect a great deal of student participation, and often receive hugs as the end of your session, you will love this resource for community building.  If you don't do or expect any of the above, your class would probably benefit from a few community building activities.  The training is called TRIBES.  You can search for a local training, or you can just purchase the book at places like Amazon.  It is chocked full of pages and pages of community building activities.   The authors note age appropriateness for each activity, so you won’t accidentally insult your adult learners’ intelligence and maturity by selecting an activity geared toward K-6 students.

Additionally, Alisa Beltzar (1998) indicates that leavers from your classes don’t consider themselves ‘drop-outs’.  They stop attending but plan on returning later.  These students see their departure from a program as a ‘temporary hiatus’ rather than a ‘negative’ or ‘failure’.  We have all probably felt frustration over our students’ excuses, right?  Perhaps, armed with this information, we can feel less frustration as we shift our discussion from repeated transportation problem-solving strategies to a student’s impending hiatus and the procedure for returning to the program before they actually drop out.