Accountable Talk Accountable Talk is "talk that is meaningful, respectful, and mutually beneficial to both speaker and listener. It stimulates higher-order thinking which, in turn, helps students to learn, reflect on their learning and communicate their knowledge and understanding."- Education Bureau of Hong Kong A few years ago, the district that I teach in really started to focus on the importance of student-led conversation and the power that reflecting on and communicating one's individual learning can actually have on individual and peer learning experiences. When accountable talk was first introduced to me, I immediately fell in love with what it represented-student ownership. Teachers are really good at talking. Talking means we are the ones in control. However, when students take over the conversation, they are the ones in control of their learning experiences, and that is something that I have been so proud to support and watch unfold in our classroom over the past few ...
accountable talk
Test Prep Response Cards
Test Prep Response Cards The idea of using cards as an interactive visual tool for test preparation and review is nothing new. I know that. You know that. But, I am really picky about test review in my classroom. I like interacting with my kiddos. We all do. So, why give them 5 questions and ask them to write their responses on a sheet of paper? Why not give them flip cards and make them discuss with one another and defend their answers? Why not? We use accountable talk all day long in my classroom. Now that we are elbow deep in close reading, using text evidence, and inferring, the students are using their accountable talk more than ever. I don't accept yes or no answers so why would test prep be any different? That got me thinking. Why not redo my review cards to help students remember that they must back up their answers to our review and test prep with evidence? Thus...these babes were born. Cute, yes? I passed these out to the kiddos in my ...
Number Talk and Five for Friday
I have been blessedly spoiled this week. My district had already planned for a holiday this Friday so I was already lucky(or cursed) with a four day week. Then, that lovely snow storm hit, and my short week turned into a snowcation giving me Wed. and Thurs. off. Sweet, yes? Oh..it gets sweeter! Now, I am in the lovely city Nashville sipping on some local coffee, eating a bagel, and making NO plans to head home until Monday because we also have Presidents' Day off. I know, I know. Don't hate me. I'll make it up to you at the end of this post. Promise. So with that said, I hesitantly joined the Five for Friday linky this week because I really don't have anything exciting to share with you unless you want to see my week of photos that would have included my pajamas and screenshots of Netflix marathons. Have you seen this shirt? This is literally what I do on all of my snow days. ...
