“Hey, Iowa, how are you doing?”
My walking companion turns to face the man talking, who is also selling . . .
“Iowa State,” I forget and say, “No, Iowa Hawkeyes.” Now I’m engaging in the conversation.
Someone always asks for directions on the Metro. Inside Columbus Circle, I had no clue. A second request came outside Riverside Church so I could provide those directions.
Why do folks talk to me? I wear my collegiate pride. (Remember we have no National Sports Teams in Iowa.) So I’m used to strangers talking to me or asking for help.
It was a pure pleasure to hear Anne Taranto Saturday at TCRWP in a session titled: “Lifting the Level of Student’s Talking and Writing about Books: Give Kids Tools and Tips to Talk and Jot about Books during Read Aloud, Book Clubs, and Partner Time”.
Here’s quick peek into the first three minutes.
“Talk is important. Layer your talk.”
A turn and talk:
“In your role, what are the patterns that you are noticing around talk?
Some of the most common that Anne shared with the packed to the gills, sit on the floor, participants in Everett Lounge were:
“They do a great job when I tell them what to do.”
“They are resistant and drag their heels.”
“We get structures up and running, but they don’t talk.”
Why is TALK important?
We need the language so we can talk. We need to share in order to display our thinking. Community matters. So in order to raise the level of talk, we need to manage the big lofty things. We need the bigger goal to manage the mess. That means that we will have to let the control freak that loves quiet go in order to let the learning chaos rise.
WE, the teachers, know our purpose.
Do our students?
Will the students ever hit the target if they don’t know the purpose?
Try the talk . . .
Try the layers . . .
Try to see it another way . . .
When you are stuck, do you use talk?
Talk for a “process” or Talk to think deeper?
What results do you get when you don’t know the purpose?
Is the work a bit frustrating?
How could you “reboot” talk to improve it?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this daily March forum from Two Writing Teachers. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
Resource - Full 
Many things to think about as a result of your post. Thanks for sharing your learning with us.
Keith,
You are welcome! So much thinking as a result of a day of learning! 🙂
Layers of talk, I really like that, talk is so many different things. In an ESL classroom it’s hard to get kids to talk or give an opinion, so yes, it is so important!
Of course there can’t be talking without a listener, someone we can bounce ideas off of and from whom we can get verbal as well an nonverbal reactions. All of this helps us formulate new ideas and shape our writing.