Can We Talk? No, Really!

One of the many setbacks of the past two years is the learning voids among students who were kept home and not in school or other learning environments.

Perhaps our society forgot that “children don’t think like adults” (Papert, 1999)  and their needs, especially for social connections are vastly different from adults (Piaget, 1966). The earlier works of Vygotsky and later works of Bruner (1968), Papert, Lave and Wenger form a continuum of social-emotional learning.

Children learn to talk by … talking (Bruner, 1968). The human voice in real-time is preferred. Along with talking, we must utilize question wait time and active listening.

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Educators (and those who love them) can use EdTech Digital tools to catalyst the process of student talk in learning environments.

Here is a list of reliable online strategy “How-To’s”

Chatting It Up: How to Increase Student Talk Time in The ESL Classroom from Concordia University- https://www.cune.edu/academics/resource-articles/chatting-it-how-increase-student-talk-time-esl-classroom

9 Strategies for Getting More Students to Talk from Edutopia – https://www.edutopia.org/article/9-strategies-getting-more-students-talk

The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies, by Jennifer Gonzalez at Cult of Pedagogy – https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/speaking-listening-techniques/

Structured Student Talk from CCOE- https://www.scoe.org/files/el14-structured-student-talk-handout.pdf

Turn and Talk Strategy with Video Demonstrations from Teacher Toolkit – There is a Pre-K and older student version- https://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/turn-and-talk

                                                                                   References

Bruner, J. (1968). Child’s Talk: Learning to use language. Basic Books.

Concordia University (2019). Chatting it up: How to increase student talk time in the ESL classroom.
https://www.cune.edu/academics/resource-articles/chatting-it-how-increase-student-talk-time-esl-classroom

Gonzalez, J. (2015). The Big List of Classroom Discussion Strategie. Cult of Pedagogy. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/speaking-listening-techniques/

Papert, S. (1999). Papert on piaget. Time magazine, pág, 105. https://ase.tufts.edu/DevTech/courses/readings/papertonpiaget.pdf

Piaget, J. and Inhelder, B. (1966). The psychology of the child. Basic Books.

Reid, R. (2019). 9 strategies for getting more students to talk. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/9-strategies-getting-more-students-talk

Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE), (2021). Structured Student Talk. https://www.scoe.org/files/el14-structured-student-talk-handout.pdf

TeacherToolKit: Turn and Talk Strategy (2014-2022). https://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/turn-and-talk

Teague, H. (2022). Learning Theory-> Vygotsky’s ZPD/MKO Constructivism and Paper’s Constructionsim. [VideoFile]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/embed/TnnBpiSNSeU