Transcript Introducing Talk Factory!

Cornwall Learning
Introducing Talk Factory!
Developing your
students’ capacity
to engage in
exploratory talk
AST conference
Wednesday 8th February 2012
(Sands Resort)
Andy Brumby
Lead consultant for
learning and teaching,
Cornwall Learning
[email protected]
07968 992462
“Inspiring!”
“Relevant”
“Lots of practical ideas”
“Has changed the way I
teach”
Assessment for Learning
Behaviour for leaning
Gifted and talented
learners
Group work
Intervention
Learning and life skills
Literacy across the
curriculum
Oral communication
Thinking skills and
creativity
Why is it a good time to be
talking about talk?
• New Ofsted framework has a clear focus
on the development of literacy skills.
• Report of the Expert Panel for National
Curriculum review (December 2011)
recommends that “the development of oral
language should be a particular feature of
the new National Curriculum”.
• There is a compelling body of evidence
that highlights a connection between oral
development, cognitive development and
educational attainment.
From The Report of the Expert Panel for the National Curriculum Review (DfE December 2010)
One for your diary…
• Neil Mercer is one of the researchers who has
helped to build up the “compelling body of
evidence” referred to in the previous slide. Neil
will be guest speaker at our forthcoming
Speaking and Listening conference which is
due to take place on Friday 29th June 2012.
• For further details about this event, please
contact Wendy Delf, English advisor
• [email protected]
Objectives
• To reflect upon your students’ existing strengths
and weaknesses as speakers and listeners
• To reflect upon the teaching of speaking and
listening skills (oral communication) at your
school or college
• To explore how Talk Factory can be used to
develop your pupils’ ability to engage in
discussions which move learning and thinking
forwards
What does research tell us?
• Previous research has found that although
students are often asked to work in groups
for discussion, their interactions are
frequently ineffective (Galton &
Williamson, 1992). This is because
students often fail to understand how to
talk together (Dawes, Mercer & Wegerif,
2004).
Footballers’ salaries – what do you think?
The average salary of a Premier League footballer has more than
doubled in the last four years, according to a study. On average, a
player plying his trade at one of the 20 top-flight clubs in England
earns £1.5 million a year, compared to £646,000 in 2006.
Manchester City strike duo Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor are
believed to be the highest earners, each taking home more than
£7m a year. Chelsea pair John Terry and Frank Lampard, along with
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, are the top-earning Englishmen,
bringing in £6.5m.
The amounts earned in England are dwarfed by the pay packet of Real
Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo, who earns £11.5m a year.
SOURCE:
• http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/28042010/58/premier-league-playersalaries-doubled-four-years.html
Who deserves to be paid most and why?
An army
bomb
disposal
expert
A professional
footballer
A police
officer
An office
cleaner
You have 5
minutes to
discuss and
debate this.
You should
aim to
reach a
consensus
by the end
of your
discussion.
A car factory
worker
A dentist
A nurse
How did that go?
• What was the most challenging thing about
this activity?
• Did everyone contribute?
• Did people give reasons why they agreed
or disagreed with each other’s point of
view?
• What sort of things did people say and do
to move the discussion on in a helpful
way?
How often do you see your
learners…
• involved in a discussion which is really
pushing their thinking?
• building on one another’s contributions?
• challenging one another’s reasoning?
• articulating partially formed thoughts and
ideas?
• evaluating the quality of their discussion
and argumentation?
• Research in primary and secondary schools
looking at the impact of the direct teaching of
spoken language skills (Mercer and Littleton,
2007; Dawes, 2008) indicates:
• Generally, children are not aware of the
importance of talk for thinking and learning.
• Discussions in which students are
encouraged to think deeply occur rarely
(Mercer, 1994)
• Discourse of the classroom needs to be
more dialogic/ interactive (Mortimer and
Scott, 2003)
Pupils’ talk
• What name might you give to each kind of
talk described on the following slides?
• How common is each kind of talk at your
school?
• How helpful is each kind of talk for
learning and thinking?
TYPE OF TALK 1
• There is a lot of disagreement and
everyone just makes their own decisions.
There are few attempts to pool resources,
or to offer constructive criticism. There are
often a lot of interactions of the 'Yes it is! No it's not!' kind. The atmosphere is
competitive rather than co-operative.
DISPUTATIONAL TALK
Acknowledgement: N. Mercer, 2008
TYPE OF TALK 2
• Everyone simply accepts and agrees with
what other people say. Pupils do use talk
to share knowledge, but they do so in an
uncritical way. They repeat and elaborate
each other's ideas, but they don't evaluate
them carefully.
CUMULATIVE TALK
Acknowledgement: N. Mercer, 2008
Spot
on!
My thoughts
exactly
Yes, you’re right.
I agree.
Me, too.
And me
Same here.
TYPE OF TALK 3
 everyone listens actively.
 people ask questions.
 people share relevant information.
 ideas may be challenged.
 reasons are given for challenges.
 contributions build on what has gone before.
 everyone is encouraged to contribute.
 ideas and opinions treated with respect.
 there is an atmosphere of trust.
 there is a sense of shared purpose.
 the group seeks agreement for joint decisions.
Acknowledgement:
EXPLORATORY TALK
N. Mercer, 2008
Exploratory talk is that in which:
- partners engage critically but
constructively with each other's ideas
- ideas may be challenged and counterchallenged
but challenges are justified and
alternative hypotheses are offered
- reasoning is visible in the talk (Mercer
et al, 1999, p.97).
Research in primary and secondary schools looking
at the impact of the direct teaching of spoken
language skills (Mercer and Littleton, 2007; Dawes,
2008) indicates:
 Teaching
children how to use talk effectively, and developing their
awareness of the importance of this talk, can contribute to the
development of conceptual understanding.
 Classes
who learn about talk and agree a set of ground rules for
exploratory talk gain more from group work.
 Students
are more likely to engage in deep learning because their own
ideas, concerns and suggestions are negotiated and discussed.
Who would make the best
teacher and why?
• Place in rank order (from best to worst)
and justify
You have exactly ten
minutes to discuss this.
You should attempt to reach
agreement within your group
by the end of the discussion.
How did that go?
• What was the most challenging thing about this
activity?
• Did everyone in your group contribute?
• Did people give reasons why they agreed or
disagreed with each other’s point of view?
• What sort of things did people say and do to
move the discussion on in a helpful way?
• What sort of things did people say and do that
were not so helpful? (No names)
• If you were given the opportunity to draw up
some rules for group discussion what would they
be?
Our rules for group talk
The purpose of these rules is to make sure that we
can have a discussion in which:
• everyone contributes
• everybody’s views are listened to and taken into
account
• people can share new ideas and thoughts as
they form in their minds
• people can express agreement and
disagreement in a way that moves thinking
forward
• people work towards a shared decision or final
outcome that everybody can accept
Our rules for group talk
Things that we should
say or do 
Things that we should
not say or do 
Talk Factory is designed to generate graphical representations of the content of students'
whole class discussions in real time. It is designed for use on an Interactive
Whiteboard.
Copyright 2011 Open University
Tailoring Talk Factory to your needs
TO START A NEW TALK FACTORY FILE
(do not complete this if you want to open a
saved file from a previous lesson)
First enter a file name, class name, date
and time. This will enable you to go back
to this file in future. The file will be saved
automatically (as an Excel file) to your
desktop.
TO OPEN A SAVED FILE: click ‘Open saved file’. Navigate to the
(excel) file you want to open and click OK.
Copyright 2011 Open University
TO EDIT THE TALK FACTORY RULES
Here, you can edit the rules for talking
which appear in Talk Factory. We
recommend you use the existing default
rules initially. Once your class has
mastered these rules, you can enter new
ones.
The first line is the rule and subsequent
lines are examples of that rule in practice.
There are three positive rules on the left
and three negative rules on the right.
Note: there is a limit to how much text you
can type into the rules boxes.
© 2011 Open University
© 2011 Open University
Think of a pupil…
• Which of the rules shown on the previous slide
might help him to collaborate with his peers?
• Why is it important to involve pupils in drawing
up a set of rules for talk?
• What could you say and/or do if somebody
breaks one of the rules that the class has
agreed?
• How might you encourage them to monitor their
own progress against an agreed set of rules for
talk?
Classic Screen
•
•
•
•
•
The Classic screen can be used to
represent students' discussion in any
lesson
The processes of argumentation are
represented in Talk Factory as six talk rules
(both positive and negative elements of
argumentation)
Sentence openers are displayed to guide
students' understanding of how to begin
dialogic responses that follow these rules
The software requires you to tap on each
rule as a child makes an utterance. It then
transforms your input into a bar graph
quantifying the occurrence of each event
The horizontal bar shows the unfolding
sequence, or timeline, of desirable ('happy
face') and undesirable ('sad face') events.
Using the OPTIONS button
When you right click on the options button you can:
1.
2.
3.
Undo your last action. You can repeat this as many times as you wish
Save and return to menu. This saves your filet and returns to the menu (as shown on the previous page)
Close the application. When you close the application the software automatically saves
Copyright 2011 Open University
Conclusions
• Our findings support the view that talk skills are teachable
and that without explicit discussion of the structure of talk,
students may not be able to participate in rich conversations
(Mercer, 2002).
• The use of the Talk Factory in classroom discussions can
give students clear understanding of how to talk effectively
together by representing characteristics of exploratory talk
in real time
• The TF is a tool that can be used to help teachers to make
explicit the rules that govern talk in the classroom, to
analyse the talk that has gone on, and ask students to
evaluate its quality
The Group Work Toolkit
• Now available to purchase from Cornwall
Learning for £40.00. Includes:
• objectives for group work
• questions for group work
• strategies for group work
• roles and rules for group work
• skills for group work
There’s an order form in your pack!
© Cornwall Learning 2011
Some suggested learning objectives for group work
We are learning to:
• be active listeners who can show interest in what others have
to say
• take it in turns to talk when working in pairs or as a group
• collaborate (work as a team) with people that we do not know
or do not know very well
• support, encourage and trust one another when working as a
group
• negotiate with others and make compromises (not always get
your own way)
• work towards an agreed solution that we have all contributed
to
• divide up a task so that everybody is clear what their role is
and what they have to do, individually and as a group
• be assertive (have your say) without being rude or aggressive
© Cornwall Learning 2011
Group work : Toolkit
Suggested roles for group work
Chairperson
Summariser
‘Would it be a good idea at this point if…?’ ‘So, what we’re saying here is…’
Distils the key points, feeds back to wider
Ensures that people are involved and that the
group
task is completed
Observer
‘It was helpful when James asked why…’
Eavesdrops on the group, noting comments,
techniques, interactions etc and provides
feedback
Time-keeper
‘OK everybody, we’ve got under a minute
left to…’
Manages time, ensures that the group are
aware of the amount of time remaining
© Cornwall Learning 2011
Facilitator
Makes sure that everybody gets involved / is
included / contributes
Regulator
Makes sure that group members are aware of
and abide by their own rules for talk
Group work : Toolkit
Roles : Chairperson
• Ensures that people are involved in the discussion
• Summarises
agreed
• Ensures that the task is completed “We’ve
that…”
“Would anyone like
to suggest…?”
“Our task is…”
“What we’re still
disagreeing about
is …”
“So what we’ve
been asked to do
is…”
“Does anyone
have any ideas
about…?”
“Let’s go through
the main points
we’ve agreed on.”
“Who would
like to…?”
© Cornwall Learning 2011
“Do we all
agree
that…?”
Group work : Toolkit
Roles : Timekeeper
• Keeps an eye on the time
• Reminds the group of the deadline
“We’ve only
got 5
minutes
left.”
“We need to
get back on
task.”
“I think we
need to
move on
now.”
© Cornwall Learning 2011
Group work : Toolkit
Language for group work
Encourage pupils to use modal language when working in
groups, as this makes it easier to negotiate and avoid
arguments and confrontation.
Perhaps we need
to include…
Maybe we ought to
consider…
© Cornwall Learning 2011
How might we
change that to…?
What difference
could it make if…?
Group work : Toolkit
You can show that you are involved by saying …
• “I agree with… because…”
• “I think we need to… because…”
• “Can you explain that again?”
• “I really like your idea because…”
• “Well done, that’s brilliant because...”
• “What do you think?”
• “What if…?”
• “What about…?”
• “Yes I agree with… and we could also…”
• “Perhaps we could…”
• “I propose that…”
Group work : Toolkit
You can show that you disagree by saying …
• “But don’t you think we need to… because…?”
• “What about…?”
• “Wasn’t that more important because…?”
• “Don’t we also need to…?”
• “I can see your point but what about…”
• “I feel strongly that… because…”
• “I’m not sure I agree with the point about…
because…”
• “On the other hand, we might need to think about…”
The Group Work Toolkit
• Now available to purchase from Cornwall
Learning for £40.00. Includes:
• objectives for group work
• questions for group work
• strategies for group work
• roles and rules for group work
• skills for group work
There’s an order form in your pack!
Andy Brumby
Lead consultant for
learning and teaching,
Cornwall Learning
[email protected]
07968 992462
“Inspiring!”
“Relevant”
“Lots of practical ideas”
“Has changed the way I
teach”
Assessment for Learning
Behaviour for leaning
Gifted and talented
learners
Group work
Intervention
Learning and life skills
Literacy across the
curriculum
Oral communication
Thinking skills and
creativity