Week 2 Post-Classroom Talk

I have been witnessing a lot of different 'classroom talk' within my third grade classroom. Last week in class our CT told the students they couldn't use certain words in their writings, because he considered them "dull" and knew the students could challenge their use of vocabulary. Every week he eliminates more and more words the students can't use, forcing them to pull out their thesaurus' and explore. He eliminates words like big, small, said, etc. This week when I went to field the students were reading their chapter books as a class related to their social studies lesson on the civil rights movement and when asked to describe a character from the book one child actually raised her hand and described the character as "obstinate". I could tell she was picking up a wider vocabulary and our CT praised her on this immediately!

By setting some ground rules in the classroom, our CT has developed a greater level of learning to take place within his classroom. Our CT has students writing books every two weeks that they spend much time creating, editing, illustrating, and then presenting to the class. He has students read chapter books allowed to one another as well as read to by himself every day. They students have come to accept reading time and writing as a privileged, something fun to do! This shared sense of passion for reading and writing leads to students learning a more varied and diverse 'classroom talk'. 

I think above all in order to scaffold students to encourage them to share, you need to show them that they can have fun in an accepting and self-expressive, care-free environment. They students of my third grade classroom have built a safe community together and enjoy sharing. Although there are some students more reluctant to share than others, this reluctance in combatted by an unwavering sense of acceptance and praise.