Is Teacher Talk Bad?
***NOTE THIS BLOG POST WAS WRITTEN BEFORE I DECIDED TO FOCUS ON AGILE AND STUDENT TEAMS***
I had the most profound experience as an instructional coach the other day. I was in a discussion with a group of teachers that I hadn't worked with before and we got on the topic of teacher talk vs. student talk. As I was listening to a teacher discuss this point, I asked a question that stopped everyone in their tracks, "Is teacher talk bad?"
I asked a question that stopped everyone in their tracks, "Is teacher talk bad?"
With the pendulum swinging back and forth in education from lecture to student ownership, there has to be a balance. Teacher talk isn't bad but too much probably is.
The Teacher Shouldn't Own Learning
Teacher talk done purposefully, clearly and with authenticity can help student reach levels of learning the student might not have been able to get to on their own. However, the teacher shouldn't own the learning process or be the keeper of all information. We must equip our students to be deep thinkers, question and analyze information and one way to do so is to model processes for students to get an understanding of exactly how to learn. So modeling usually involves the teacher talking.
Efficient Teacher Talk
As a teacher, I always wanted to limit my talking in front of kids as much as possible. As it's not my show, it's theirs. Essentially, I thought about how I could be more efficient with my directions and modeling. Sometimes talking in front of the whole group was the way to go. Other times I might be able to leverage technology to be more efficient.
There were a couple of tools I leveraged to make this happen. First, I needed to make sure students could access the information. So I turned to a learning management system or LMS. For me, Google Classroom worked as a great LMS to display my video directions and modeling. Next, I needed a tech tool to record myself. In my school district we had Apple Macbooks as teacher laptops so I utilized Screen Recording on the Quicktime Player that was on our Macbooks. Below are a number of other free tools you can use to record your screen or voice:
Next, I uploaded my recordings to YouTube and posted that video into my Google Classroom for students to utilize.
Routines
Now I didn't stop talking in front of students, I had a routine of bringing the class together after the first five minutes of class to discuss the lesson or continuing lesson from the other day. Once I brought them together, I made sure my words were to the point, clear and understood. It's important to note though, students weren't just sitting there waiting for me to speak, they always had something they had to do immediately when they entered the classroom. Sometimes that might be getting back to work on a project from the last lesson, updating their e-portfolio or journaling their learning goal for that day. From my "learning" page, learning was expected, central and part of the culture of my class, it's just something we did.
So teacher talk isn't bad, but it should be balanced with how much student's get to partake in the learning. Be clear and efficient with your teacher talk and students will have plenty of time to own the learning process.