We read before we wrote;
We spoke before we read;
We listened before we spoke.
Below are strategies to develop oral language, a foundation for literacy.
Chapter 5 from Content-Area Conversations by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey and Carol Rothenberg includes posters for language objectives and accountable talk, as well as ideas for linguistic frames, and strategies for managing talk in pairs and groups.
STRATEGIES
A strategy for listening and paraphrasing.
Expert Stay & Stray provides students with an opportunity to discuss information as they learn or apply it in an assignment, share the information orally while others listen attentively, and paraphrase someone else's explanation of the work.
A great before reading strategy that can be used for any content.
This activity, based on the work of Kylene Beers, encourages students to think about the characters, setting, conflict, resolution, and vocabulary of the story prior to reading.
Use before reading to help students brainstorm key ideas on a topic/reading to activate prior knowledge and build background knowledge. Use after reading to help students to summarize and synthesize key concepts in the reading.
This strategy incorporates speaking, listening and writing. It is great for recalling information from a previous lesson or as a formative assessment/exit slip to see if students have met the objective of your lesson.
While this site is geared for teachers of English for Speakers of Other Languages, the strategies are still beneficial to implement in any classroom because the cooperative setting provides greater opportunities for the students to notice and use language.
This discussion technique gives students the opportunity to respond to questions and/or discuss information with a variety of peers in a structured manner. Students form two concentric circles and exchange information with a partner until the teacher signals the outer circle to move in one direction, giving each student a new peer to talk to. Also great as a pre-writing activity.
ACADEMIC LANGUAGE
A resource for developing academic language for all students in all content areas.
DISCUSSION PLATFORMS
Flipgrid is a video discussion platform. Create your group, add a topic, a dialogue is created as students share short video responses.
