Talking Together 1: dialogic and exploratory talk Speaking and Listening Seminar

Objectives To understand we make talk visible and turn it into a conscious tool To understand exploratory talk To consider role of teacher in exploratory talk Introduce key researchers into exploratory talk Introduce Talk Boxes

Assignment Everything we talk about in this seminar will be relevant to your assignment to be handed in W1 of semester 2 and for the essay preparation seminar in W9. You are advised to look at your handbook this week to familiarise yourself with the assignment title and guidance

Recap What are the three language modes in the National Curriculum? Which language modes come first in the present National Curriculum? Why? How is story important to human beings?

Discuss what is happening in this illustration

Great Little movers and shakers Lev Vygotsky Jerome Bruner Neil Mercer Robin Alexander Socrates

What is the story?

What does the research tell us about talk that goes on in the classroom? I Initiation RResponse FFeedback (Sinclair and Coulthard 1975 )

Fancy Fear There’s this boy at my school who fancies me. He keeps staring at me and saying that he’ll beat up my boyfriend. I’m really scared that my boyfriend is going to get hurt. What can I do about this, Laura Shout 4 th June 2010

Blackmail Betrayal Please help, Laura. The other week I was whispering to my best mate when my other mate spotted us. She wanted to know what we were whispering about, but we didn’t want her to know. She went into a huge mood and wouldn’t talk to us. She blackmailed me by saying she’d tell everyone who my crushes were if I didn’t tell her! I didn’t and, sure enough, by the end of the day, everyone knew, and she’d spread a rumour about my best mate! We didn’t want to be friends with her anymore, but then a few days later she asked to be mates again and I said yes! I felt so awkward, I had no choice! Did I make the right decision, Laura? Shout 18 th June 2010

Seventeen Lyrics i learned the truth at seventeen that love was meant for beauty queens and high school girls with clear skinned smiles who married young and then retired the valentines i never knew the Friday night charades of youth were spent on one more beautiful at seventeen i learned the truth and those of us with ravaged faces lacking in the social graces desperately remained at home inventing lovers on the phone who called to say "come dance with me" and murmured vague obscenities it isn't all it seems at seventeen a brown eyed girl in hand me downs whose name I never could pronounce said: "pity please the ones who serve they only get what they deserve" the rich relationed hometown queen marries into what she needs with a guarantee of company and haven for the elderly so remember those who win the game lose the love they sought to gain in debitures of quality and dubious integrity their small-town eyes will gape at you in dull surprise when payment due exceeds accounts received at seventeen to those of us who knew the pain of valentines that never came and those whose names were never called when choosing sides for basketball it was long ago and far away the world was younger than today when dreams were all they gave for free to ugly duckling girls like me... we all play the game, and when we dare we cheat ourselves at solitaire inventing lovers on the phone repenting other lives unknown that call and say: "come on, dance with me" and murmur vague obscenities at ugly girls like me, at seventeen Janis Ian 1975

Seventeen by Janis Ian Youtube Link m/watch?v=9_X0a8bOif U m/watch?v=9_X0a8bOif U

Mercer’s Types of Talk Disputational Cumulative Exploratory

Exploratory talk Because If Why I think What if

Joint activity Interthinking Intermental space Intramental space Articulate Analyse Chains of response Modify in the light of other people’s contributions

Exploratory talk is thinking aloud together - constructing knowledge through talk Exploratory talk is hesitant and incomplete because it enables the speaker to try out ideas, to hear how they sound, to see what others make of them, to arrange information and ideas into different patterns…in exploratory talk the speaker is more concerned with sorting out his or her own thoughts Barnes D in Dawes L. and Mercer, N. (2008) Exploring Talk in School London: Sage

What does exploratory talk look like Actively participate Ask each other questions Share relevant information Give reasons for their views Constructively criticise Try to reach agreement Mercer (2007) o Asking questions o Including relevant information o Justifying ideas o Having ground rules o Using reasoning words – if, but, because o Trying to reach an agreement o Trusting each other and acting as a team Mercer et al (1999)

Ground Rules – Teacher Version Partners engage critically but constructively with each other’s ideas Everyone participates Tentative ideas are treated with respect Ideas are offered for joint consideration may be challenged Challenges are justified and alternative ideas or understandings are offered Opinions are sought and considered before decisions are jointly made Knowledge is made publicly accountable (and so reasoning is visible in the talk) Mercer M. & Hodgkinson, S. (eds) (2008) Exploring Talk in School London: Sage pp

Ground rules 1 For talk: Share ideas Give reasons Question ideas Consider Agree Involve everybody Everybody accepts responsibility

Ground rules 2 Our talking rules We share our ideas and listen to each other We talk one at a time We respect each other’s opinions We give reasons to explain our ideas If we disagree we ask ‘why?’ We try to agree in the end

Children internalise ground rules (shared dialogic talk) of exploratory talk and carry on a kind of silent rational dialogue with themselves

Talk Boxes

Make a talk box with a partner Bring it to the seminar next week Be prepared to share it with other students

Locking it in In 10 seconds silence, think of the three most important/interesting things you have learned this seminar Share them with a colleague

Follow up task Watch Neil Mercer lecturing about talk as a tool for thinking (2008): qMDGITo

Bibliography Alexander, R. J. (2003) “Talk in teaching and learning; international perspectives” in QCA New perspectives on English in the Classroom, London, QCA Corden, R. (2000) Literacy and Learning through Talk; Strategies for the primary classroom, Buckingham, OUP Dawes L. and Mercer, N. (2008) Exploring Talk in School London: Sage Mercer (1995) The guided construction of knowledge, Clevedon, Multilingual Matters Mercer, N (2000) Words and minds : how we use language to think together, London: Routledge Mercer, N. & Littleton, K. (2007) Dialogue and the development of children's thinking : a sociocultural approach, London: Routledge Mercer M. & Hodgkinson, S. (eds) (2008) Exploring Talk in School London: Sage Sinclair J. & Coulthard, M. (1975) Towards an Analysis of Discourse; The Language of Teachers and Students, London, Oxford University Press Siraj-Blatchford, I., Sylva, K., Muttock, S., Gilden, R., & Bell, D. (2002) Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years, Research Briefing 356, Nottingham, DfES

Language and thought :Vygotsky Vygotsky stressed that thought is not merely expressed in words it comes into existence through them He considered all speech to be socialised or to have a communicative function Children can learn effectively through interaction with a more knowledgeable other Corden, 2000, p.7-8

Language and thought: Bruner Bruner argued that: Learning is facilitated through organised and structured learning experiences Children need to be provided with opportunities to extend their current understanding Speech is a primary instrument of thought Bruner named the provision of appropriate frameworks for social interaction “scaffolding”. Corden, 2000, p. 9-11

Scum? Discuss in groups