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IFL Principles of Learning & Accountable Talk

October 2, 2014

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Objectives for this session:

Teachers will learn about the 9 IFL Principles of Learning
Teachers will understand the purpose of Accountable Talk
Teachers will understand the role of the teacher and students in Accountable Talk.
Teachers will understand the expectations for Accountable Talk at Carrboro and within CHCCS.

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IFL Principles of Learning

Organizing for Effort
Clear Expectations
Fair and Credible Evaluations
Recognition of Accomplishments
Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum

Socializing Intelligence
Self Management of Learning
Learning as Apprenticeship
Accountable Talk Practices

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Accountable Talk Practices

Talking with others about ideas and work is fundamental to learning. But not all talk sustains learning. For classroom talk to promote learning it must be accountable to accurate knowledge and to rigorous thinking.

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More about Accountable Talk

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Accountable Talk Expectations

Common Core

The fact that the CCSS even lists listening and speaking standards is an indication of how important they are.
All the K-5 S&L standards include: “Participate in collaborative conversations on grade level topics…with peers”, “Confirm understanding of a text … by asking and answering questions…”, “describe,” “paraphrase”, “recount”, “report”, “summarize” etc.
Students are expected to do this orally and in writing.
If they can do it orally, they will be able to do it in writing but the oral part should come first, and must come first for language learners.

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Accountable Talk Expectations

CHCCS

The district expectation is that Accountable Talk is integrated into all subject areas.
That teachers are continually adding to their repertoire of Accountable Talk moves.

CES

Accountable talk stems are posted in a useful place in your classroom and referred to often.
That students are challenged and expected to use the academic language of Accountable Talk on a regular basis.
From K to 5th students are using increasingly complex academic language in their classroom conversations.

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Accountable Talk practices ask students:

To respond to and further develop what others in the group have said.
To put forth and demand knowledge that is accurate and relevant to the discussion.
To use evidence appropriate to the discipline (e.g., proofs in mathematics, data from investigations in science, textual details in literature, documentary sources in history)
To follow established norms of good reasoning.

Teachers should intentionally create the norms and skills of Accountable Talk practices in their classrooms. It’s not the same as just having a conversation about the topic at hand--it is much more deliberate and planned.

So accountable talk asks students to:

actually listen to one another. Often we have students who are raising their hands just waiting for their turn to share their idea, that they are not really listening to the ideas of others.
to put forth knowledge that is accurate and relevant - whoa - this is taking a discussion to a higher level. Students have to participate in a discussion with accurate information that is relevant too! Accountable talk really takes a lot of baseless ideas and off topic responses off the table.
this brings us to using evidence appropriate to the discipline - if I am contributing I need to have some evidence. This evidence is what is keeping my contribution accurate and on topic. We have to teach the different types of evidence in different subject areas.
to follow norms of good reasoning. This will look different at different grade levels. When I watch my fifth grader and first grader have an argument - my fifth grader usually has the upper hand because her reasoning is more on target. She has more experience. Our expectation of good reasoning will change across the grade levels as our student grow in experience and sophistication.

So how how do we get kids to do this?

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There are basic talk moves that teachers use to support and scaffold accountable talk -

Marking: "That's an important point."

Challenging: "What do YOU think?"

Modeling: "Here's what good readers do."

Recapping: "What have we discovered?"

talk

Marking - Sometimes a student will make a contribution, either in answer to a question or as a spontaneous addition to discussion, that is particularly valuable or

notable, given the teacher's current academic purposes. The teacher can mark this in a variety of ways, pointing out to the other students exactly what

was valuable or important. For example, "Did everyone hear what Samantha just said? She made a comparison between this problem and the one we did

last week. That's important because it shows that we're remembering to use the strategies we came up with then."

Challenging -One way a teacher can support a more academically rigorous conversation is to challenge students by turning the responsibility for reasoning back to

them. The teacher might press students with a counterexample or explicitly ask the students to answer a question that another student has posed.

"Hmm...that's a great question, Rebecca. What do you guys think?" This kind of move is called "turning back," redirecting a question back to the students or using students' contributions as a source for a further challenge or query. This kind of move has been called a "reflective toss" and shown to be a powerful move for developing shared understandings in the classroom.

Modeling - Modeling is used widely in teaching of all kinds. It simply means that the teacher herself is showing the learner how she carries out a particular

activity. In the Accountable Talk realm, modeling is an important move that takes the form of the teacher making public some aspect of her thinking. In

this way, teachers demonstrate to students expert forms of reasoning through talk.

Recapping: - As part of their efforts to make talk accountable, effective teachers use a move called "recapping" or "summarizing". This is particularly important in a group discussion, because ideas can evolve through the contributions of many students. Recapping is a way of making public in a concise, coherent form the group's achievement at creating a shared understanding of the topic under discussion.

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With Accountable Talk we have...

Accountability to the Learning Community

Listen carefully to each other
Use and build on each other’s ideas
Paraphrase and seek clarification
Respectfully disagree
Use sentence stems as needed

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Moves to Support Accountability of the Learning Community

Keeping the channels open: "Did everyone hear that?"
Keeping everyone together: "Who can repeat…?"
Linking contributions: "Who wants to add on…?"
Verifying and clarifying: "So, are you saying…?"

“Don’t just stand there - bust a talk move…”

Watch these talk moves and see how the teacher makes moves to support accountability to the learning community!

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Talk at your table

How did you see the teacher building accountability to the learning community?

In what ways were students being accountable to the group?

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With Accountable Talk we have…

Accountability to Accurate Knowledge

Be as specific and accurate as possible
Resist the urge to say just “anything that comes to mind.”
Get the facts straight
Challenge questions that demand evidence for claims

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Moves that Support Accountability to Accurate Knowledge

Pressing for accuracy: "Where can we find that?"
Building on prior knowledge: "How does this connect?"

“Workin’ on my talk moves….” (1:48-3:28)

Watch this teacher make moves that support accountability to accurate knowledge.

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Talk at your table

How did you see the teacher building accountability to the accurate knowledge?

In what ways were students being accountable to the accurate knowledge?

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With Accountable Talk we have…

Accountability to Rigorous Thinking

Build arguments
Link claims and evidence in logical ways
Work to make statements clear
Check the quality of claims and arguments

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Moves that Support Accountability of Rigorous Thinking

Pressing for reasoning: "Why do you think that?"
Expanding reasoning: "Take your time; say more."

“I’ve got talk moves like Jagger…”(2:05-7:26)

Watch this teacher make moves that support accountability to rigorous thinking.

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Talk at your table

How did you see the teacher building accountability to rigorous thinking?

In what ways were students being accountable for thinking rigorously?

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Logistics - Making it work with a bunch of kiddos!

Explicit Teaching
Establishing Turn Taking Norms
Allowing for Wait Time
Partner Talk
Anchor Charts and Stems
Systems for Moving the Conversation (0-1:48)

Explicit Teaching - I might see that my students all have a lot of really good ideas, but they are singular ideas - they are not listening to one another so they cannot build on the ideas of their classmates or even recognize when they are building on the ideas of their classmates. The first thing I need students to learn is how to listen to one another. So I am going to teach them about revoicing. I am going to explain that revoicing is listening to the ideas of others and then repeating or rephrasing that idea so the group can hear it again. Then I am going to introduce a stem that kids can use for revoicing. “I heard ________ say….” Then I am really going to practice this a lot! Then I am going to keep teaching - next I might see that my students are now listening to each other better they can hear when they have the same idea or when they have an idea that builds on someone else’s idea- now they are ready to build on each one another’s ideas I can teach them how to do that - Make sense?

Establish Turn Taking Norms - I am going to arrange the seating the partnerships and the way we talk very specifically. I want to teach and establish the ways we contribute to the conversation. We saw the teacher using hand signals for when students agree or connect their thinking. This was a visual way that the speaker and the teacher can see student thinking. I want to teach visual ways for students to participate and volunteer a contribution.

Allow for wait time- Just like any other time in the classroom, I want to allow for wait time. We are asking students to do some deep kinds of thinking. It takes time to collect your thoughts and find the words that make that happen - we need to allow for that time.

Anchor charts like we saw the 2nd grade teacher using or visible stems support and scaffold students. Charts and stems give students the running start they need to make a contribution.

Systems for moving the conversation - As teachers, we have no idea what a student is going to say - NO IDEA! I’m not sure if the students is going to build on an idea, start a new idea, support someone else’s idea with evidence, say something completely random...So having a system that will help you as the teacher move the conversation is super helpful. In this video we are going to see a system that one teacher uses that helps move the conversation.

[Watch Video Clip]

So she used a hand signal system that helped her know when students were starting new ideas or building on. This is helpful because you can build on an idea and build on an idea before starting a new idea. This helps keep the conversation focused. Also, this helps students be reflective and evaluate their own comments - they have to pause and think - “Wait - I’m I building on her idea or is this a new idea?”

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If you’re a beginner...

Start with accountability to the learning community and routines for talking!

Slides 9, 10, & 15

Help your students:

Listen well to one another
Revoice what someone has said
Add on to ideas
Ask clarifying questions

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If you have the basics...

Continue with accountability to accurate knowledge and continue to build your routines for talking!

Slides 11, 12, & 15

Help your students:

Understand how to cite the text
Link/Connect ideas
Ask clarifying questions

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If you feel like a pro...

Continue to build with accountability to rigorous thinking and solidify your routines for talking!

Slides 13, 14, & 15.

Teach the different ways to cite evidence for different subject areas.

Slide 15

Help your students:

Explain their reasoning
By asking them to expand or go deeper in their thinking

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Revisiting Objectives -

Teachers will learn about the 9 IFL Principles of Learning
Teachers will understand the purpose of Accountable Talk
Teachers will understand the role of the teacher and students in Accountable Talk.
Teachers will understand the expectations for Accountable Talk at Carrboro and within CHCCS.

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Handouts

One paper is on the 9 Principles of Learning from the IFL. Keep it in a binder or folder. We will refer to it throughout the year.�
The other handouts are something you should refer to often, the one on Accountable Talk Moves. One side is English and the other side is Spanish.

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Questions? Need support?

Let Janet and Emily know!

jdavis-castro@chccs.k12.nc.us

emoorman@chccs.k12.nc.us