1. Responsible Actively Participate Respectful No side bar conversations Reliable Start and end meetings on time

2. I. Literacy Walk Report II. January – June 2010 Focus Area Purposeful Social Interaction - Accountable Talk III. Brain Research IV. Accountable Talk Research V. Accountable Talk Stems VI. What can YOU do?

3. Observations / Recommendations

4. Observations:  Many teachers attempt to relinquish responsibility to small or large groups. However, many discussions are still very teacher- centered and led.  Some teachers have structures in place to support purposeful, social interaction (e.g. two cent box, independent thinking time, small group prior to large group, thinking box, graphic organizer). However, few teachers use the structures to effectively facilitate social interaction/discussion/Accountable Talk.  Few teachers use deliberate moves/strategies to effectively facilitate some student-centered accountable discussions (student- student interactions).  Few teachers clearly define student roles and responsibilities for student-centered accountable discussions. Recommendations:  Teams and departments should share, develop, embrace, and apply common structures to support purposeful, student to student social interaction.

5.  “ The brain is social (Sousa 2005); it requires interaction to remember well” (Wormelli 2007).  In most classrooms there is nearly a 1:1 ratio of teacher to student interactions.  The teacher knows the information!  For every 2 student questions there are 80 teacher questions…most at level 1 or 2 of Bloom’s taxonomy.  If we want students to engage in their learning and deepen their understanding we must provide increased opportunity for students to interact with each other.

6. Observations:  Most questioning was at the knowledge and comprehension level; few questions challenged students to think at higher levels. Commendation:  Many teachers pose thought provoking questions to frame a lesson and challenge students to think at higher levels. (Bloom’s Taxonomy/Six Facets of Understanding).  Many teachers asked students to provide evidence for their claims. Recommendations:  Teachers should continue to ask thought provoking questions that frame a lesson and challenge students to think at higher levels (use Bloom’s Taxonomy /Six Facets of Understanding resource distributed at PD).

7. Observations:  Formative assessments are not always strategically used to adjust instruction or clarify misconceptions. Recommendations:  Continue to implement formative assessment strategies at the individual, group, and whole class level; use the results to adjust instruction and clarify misconceptions during the lesson.

8. Observations:  Many teachers demonstrate new skills for students, but neglect to model their own thinking throughout the process.  Some teachers have structures in place to begin and end lessons (eg. open binders, daily task on the board) where it is the expectation and responsibility of all students to routinely begin class through visual instructions. Recommendations:  The process of Gradual Release needs to be implemented from beginning to end. Teachers must devote sufficient time to teacher modeling and thinking-aloud to bring to the surface the complex thinking processes that underlie cognitively demanding tasks before moving to shared and independent practice.

9. Talking with others about ideas and work is fundamental to learning. But not all talk sustains learning. For classroom talk to promote learning it must be accountable--to the learning community, to accurate and appropriate knowledge, and to rigorous thinking. Accountable talk seriously responds to and further develops what others in the group have said. It puts forth and demands knowledge that is accurate and relevant to the issue under discussion. Accountable talk uses evidence appropriate to the discipline (e.g., proofs in mathematics, data from investigations in science, textual details in literature, documentary sources in history) and follows established norms of good reasoning. Teachers should intentionally create the norms and skills of accountable talk in their classrooms.

10.  I want to add to…  I want to build upon…  I would like to tie into what … just said…  I want to disagree with…because…  I agree with…  I can connect this to…  I do not understand, could you tell me more about…  Could you clarify your statement…  My evidence is…  On page ___ it says…

11. What strategies can YOU employ to support appropriate interactions with kids?

12. Teams of teachers who regularly have students participate in Accountable Talk increase proficiently on standardized testing significantly.