Friday, January 27, 2012

Response-Centered Talk!

I think the concept of “classroom talk” is very important. In my Elementary First Grade placement I see a lot of reading going on! Since the children have DRA test, reading is extremely important. The morning is all about reading whether its songs about phonemes, watching inviting videos, group reading, literacy groups, or instruction from the teacher…there is literacy taking place 24/7. In terms of classroom talk, my teacher constantly does Dialogic Reading. Dialogic Reading is when the teacher reads a story and asks open-ended questions to prompt the students thinking. This allows the teacher to also see what the children understood from the book and how their personal life can relate to it. McGee (2) talks about how a good classroom talk does more than provide children forum, “it can provide a space for children to learn”. I think this is a great quote from the reading because it values what literacy invites readers to do. For response-centered talk to take place the teacher has to ask questions that guide students thinking. The teacher will then reflect on what a student has said to help increase the level of comprehension. In the classroom the teacher uses tons of resources. I have seen her use the smart board to show phonemic musical videos and have the student’s unscrambled sentences. I have also seen laptops used for recording children’s reading, recorders for children to listen to music, and also the computer for games supporting literacy. The teacher makes sure these technological resources are available for the children to develop a wide range of literacy skills. Once the children use these resources they all come together and talk about what they learned and the teacher ask more open-ended questions. McGee (4) also mentions how response-centered talk allows students to focus on unique images such as the feelings, images, impressions, and reactions they bring to mind while they read a text. I have seen this take place in my placement recently actually. The teacher had all the students sit at the carpet and pick a different character to be in the story. A child played the role of a grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, or baby (etc.) The whole class was able to engage and take on the role of the character. The teacher still asked questions and prompted students thinking. ("What do you think will happen next?" "Tell me a time when this happened to you?" etc.)They seemed to enjoy this interaction and showed successful comprehension of the book! A quick thought also was that my Preschool placement does response-centered talk through Dialogic Reading and incorporates the “small group” aspect that McGee (8) stresses works well. After joining in the large group the children and a teacher break apart into three different small groups to do another activity that reflects on the books and supports comprehension questions. I think this is a great method and I will use it in my future.
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2 comments:

  1. juliapJanuary 29, 2012 at 6:17 PM

    Alyssa,
    I agree with you on the response-center talk and how it can be beneficial in the classroom. I however do not see this in my classroom but there is a big emphasis on literature in my class. My teacher does often allow times for the students to think about the book they are currently readings and pushes them to think more critically about the reading. I liked what McGee said about filling in the gaps, "These brief and fleeting images, feelings, impressions, and thoughts work along with their respective responses to form the readers unique and personal understanding of the literary work," which I believe is very important for students. There have been times in my field when a student understands a book completely opposite from another students and there will be this running commentary back and forth with the students. Often times my teacher will let the students talk amongst themselves and will only guide them if they are getting too far off the point. I think, especially in younger grades, learning to comprehend and think about literature in abstract ways and allow time to think can be crucial to understanding it in the future. I wish I was allowed time like response-centered talk because I often have trouble understanding complex texts. I loved the comments from students in the Almasi reading about the purpose of discussions and how it more so suggest a collaborative environment instead of one viewpoint which I highly agree with. As Alyssa said I will definitely use this strategy in my future classrooms.

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  2. Katie O.January 29, 2012 at 6:57 PM

    I also agree with the idea of the response-centered talk in the classroom. My MT uses this style of teaching literacy a lot in her classroom. When she reads a book to them for their literacy lesson, she even makes a point to stop and ask predictions for the rest of the book. These interruptions help the students focus and really think about the text they are listening to in order to participate after the reading. My MT often stretches the students thinking as far as she can to not only completely understand their thoughts, but to encourage the entire class to participate. As an additional tactic for her literacy lessons, my MT will focus on specific students who are not participating or having difficulty understanding. She will begin again with simpler questions about basic facts about the reading, and then move on to the more critical and open-ended questions. Agreeing with the readings, these discussions have proven to show a collaborative classroom environment, because the students have really learned to not only listen and go off of their teacher s response, but have started talking directly to each other about their observations and thoughts. Seeing this idea being used effectively in the classroom definitely encourages me to use it in my future classrooms for all ages.

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