PBL Meeting - Oral Language 1.11.18
Glenfield Intermediate PBL meeting – Oral Language
Linda and Anne from Longworth Education
Linda – Developing oral language in junior classes
How many of you have a student with an oral language age of around 3-4?
Think about how many times that you have a conversation with the children in your class during the day; a real conversation. Not talking to them, not giving them instructions, but sitting down and having a conversation. Many schools don’t have the time to sit down and have a conversation.
Statistics show that to raise oral language, we need to have conversations with our students and they need to have conversations with peers.
Not about filling their heads with information about oral language, but instead get them speaking.
Research
88% of the time teachers have a role-given right to speak to anyone. Students have limited opportunities.
6% is spontaneous non-legitimate speaking
6% is allowed by teacher.
High achieving classrooms, teachers talk about 55% of the time.
Low achieving classes, teacher talk is 80% of the talk that is occurring.
Therefore we make up for their lack of oral language by talking to them, rather than allowing their OL to develop.
Teachers are dictating when, why, how etc via teacher talk.
Noise is a common factor in PBL classrooms; noise means students are engaging in conversation with their peers and getting excited.
Conversing with your students should not be a challenge in a PBL environment because you should be talking with your students about their play.
Susan Hill – Australian who has researched childrens oral language.
We need to take more time to think about the link between oral language and reading ability. If they have poor oral language, how are they meant to understand what they are required to read? E.g. sentence structures, etc.
Ready to Reads were never intended to be read in one sitting. Look at the pictures, talk about the gist of the story. This may plug the gaps with some students with gaps in oral language. If they have an oral language level of 3-4, you would not include them in guided reading groups anyway. Perhaps better to stick to shared reading and discussing what is happening in the pictures.
Teachers need to understand how children understand oral language.
Allow development of oral language by taking what they have said and elaborating on that. E.g.:
Student: Look! Dog!
Teacher: Yes, that’s a big black dog, and it’s running!
We need to understand the process children undertake to learn to talk before we can help them to develop their own oral language.
Yani van hees
Teachers ask too many questions!
Comes from a culture of assessment.
Constantly asking questions could infuriate a child; we’re just bugging them!
38% of questions are answered by the teacher themselves… so what’s the point?
We ask the question but don’t allow the students the time to formulate an answer.
If someone else jumps in to answer the question, we need to stop the interceptor and ask them to respect the first student and allow them to answer the question.
PBL structure:
Not a free-for-all, but not teacher directed.
Children in control of their learning.
They can come in and choose from various loose parts that have been provided with which they can play.
Form a rhythm between play and group.
Observe the strand of the curriculum that they are engaged in.
If you are not moving from play to groups, you are unaware of the areas of the curriculum that students are engaged in/are being covered in your classroom.
If you are only taking groups and not participating in play, you are telling them that anything they do without you is not valuable learning.
Where play breaks down is from a lack of resources, disconnect between student interest and tools that have been provided.
Linda and Anne from Longworth Education
Linda – Developing oral language in junior classes
How many of you have a student with an oral language age of around 3-4?
Think about how many times that you have a conversation with the children in your class during the day; a real conversation. Not talking to them, not giving them instructions, but sitting down and having a conversation. Many schools don’t have the time to sit down and have a conversation.
Statistics show that to raise oral language, we need to have conversations with our students and they need to have conversations with peers.
Not about filling their heads with information about oral language, but instead get them speaking.
Research
88% of the time teachers have a role-given right to speak to anyone. Students have limited opportunities.
6% is spontaneous non-legitimate speaking
6% is allowed by teacher.
High achieving classrooms, teachers talk about 55% of the time.
Low achieving classes, teacher talk is 80% of the talk that is occurring.
Therefore we make up for their lack of oral language by talking to them, rather than allowing their OL to develop.
Teachers are dictating when, why, how etc via teacher talk.
Noise is a common factor in PBL classrooms; noise means students are engaging in conversation with their peers and getting excited.
Conversing with your students should not be a challenge in a PBL environment because you should be talking with your students about their play.
Susan Hill – Australian who has researched childrens oral language.
We need to take more time to think about the link between oral language and reading ability. If they have poor oral language, how are they meant to understand what they are required to read? E.g. sentence structures, etc.
Ready to Reads were never intended to be read in one sitting. Look at the pictures, talk about the gist of the story. This may plug the gaps with some students with gaps in oral language. If they have an oral language level of 3-4, you would not include them in guided reading groups anyway. Perhaps better to stick to shared reading and discussing what is happening in the pictures.
Teachers need to understand how children understand oral language.
Allow development of oral language by taking what they have said and elaborating on that. E.g.:
Student: Look! Dog!
Teacher: Yes, that’s a big black dog, and it’s running!
We need to understand the process children undertake to learn to talk before we can help them to develop their own oral language.
Yani van hees
Teachers ask too many questions!
Comes from a culture of assessment.
Constantly asking questions could infuriate a child; we’re just bugging them!
38% of questions are answered by the teacher themselves… so what’s the point?
We ask the question but don’t allow the students the time to formulate an answer.
If someone else jumps in to answer the question, we need to stop the interceptor and ask them to respect the first student and allow them to answer the question.
PBL structure:
Not a free-for-all, but not teacher directed.
Children in control of their learning.
They can come in and choose from various loose parts that have been provided with which they can play.
Form a rhythm between play and group.
Observe the strand of the curriculum that they are engaged in.
If you are not moving from play to groups, you are unaware of the areas of the curriculum that students are engaged in/are being covered in your classroom.
If you are only taking groups and not participating in play, you are telling them that anything they do without you is not valuable learning.
Where play breaks down is from a lack of resources, disconnect between student interest and tools that have been provided.
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