Our special guest today, Josh Hall, National Director of Content and Implementation at Curriculum Associates, brings his wealth of knowledge to the table. We're going to blow the lid off the subject of discourse in the reading classroom. This isn't about simple student chit-chat, but the methodical and intent sharing of thoughts that promote diverse views and foster engagement. Give this episode a listen to learn all about how to incorporate intentional student discourse into your classroom today!
Visit the Blog: CurriculumAssociates.com/blog
Follow us on Twitter: @CurriculumAssoc
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Have feedback, questions, or want to be a guest? Email ExtraordinaryEducators@cainc.com to connect with us!
Our special guest today, Josh Hall, National Director of Content and Implementation at Curriculum Associates, brings his wealth of knowledge to the table. We're going to blow the lid off the subject of discourse in the reading classroom. This isn't about simple student chit-chat, but the methodical and intent sharing of thoughts that promote diverse views and foster engagement. Give this episode a listen to learn all about how to incorporate intentional student discourse into your classroom today!
Visit the Blog: CurriculumAssociates.com/blog
Follow us on Twitter: @CurriculumAssoc
Follow us on Instagram: @MyiReady
Have feedback, questions, or want to be a guest? Email ExtraordinaryEducators@cainc.com to connect with us!
Curriculum Associates presents the Extraordinary Educators podcast, with hosts Danielle Sullivan and Sari Laberis. Hear tips, best practices, and successes to improve your teaching and leadership and drive student growth and learning. We're here for you. Welcome back to the Extraordinary Educator podcast. I'm Sari, and this week Danielle and I were joined by Josh Hall, who is a National Director of Content and Implementation at Curriculum Associates, one of our incredibly talented colleagues who is an expert in all things reading instruction, so we are so excited for you to hear our conversation with him. Here is Josh.
Josh Hall:Hey, it's great to be back here with you today.
Sari Laberis:So, Josh, tell us. What have you been up to? What's on your mind?
Josh Hall:There's always so many things spinning around in my head that I'm looking at and reading about. So one thing that has really caught my interest here recently is this idea of discourse in the reading classroom. So when we think about discourse, the first thing we think about is talking, right. Like we're talking, and that is true, discourse is talking. But there's so much more to having discourse in the classroom than just having kids talk, and I know I think about my time in the classroom. I sort of went through this evolution that I think a lot of teachers can relate to, where at first, like it's always like calling on a student, or I should say even more than that, it's like asking a question, and then all the kids raise their hand and you pick on a student to answer. And then from there in my evolution of this, I sort of shifted into oh well, you know what, let me pose a question and then have kids turn and talk. And then I did a lot of turning and talking.
Josh Hall:And yet as I, the more I get into discourse, the more I see there's so many fun ways to get kids engaged in talking in the classroom. But it's important to remember that when we are having kids have conversations and talk, that we set expectations and we give them a clear purpose as to why they're doing what they're doing. So I think it's important for us to remember, when we're having kids talking in the classroom, that we need to be very intentional with why we're having them discuss, what we're having them discuss, what part of the lesson we're having them discuss, and really planning for that in advance. And there's so many fun ways to get kids talking in the classroom and I know as part of our new magnetic reading program they have a whole list of ideas for getting kids engaged and talking and some of my favorites from that list. I love the opinion line and, as I've shared this idea with teachers, they love it. Third grade teachers, middle school teachers, reading teachers, social studies teachers. Like the opinion line. It's so easy.
Josh Hall:What you do is you just you make like a big timeline at the front of your classroom, except it's not a timeline, but just picture like that what would look like a timeline. And then on one end you put strongly agree. On the other end you put strongly disagree. And then in between you put agree, disagree, neutral. So I think of this as I could pose the same question and it could look completely different based on how I have intentionally planned and structured that. So, for example, let's say we just read Charlotte's Web and I could say and pose the question to the class, do you think Templeton the rat is a hero? And then I could have kids raise their hand and then I could just call on them one on one. Okay, I could say "do you think Templeton the rat is a hero? And I could have the kids turn and talk to their neighbor. Or, with the opinion line, I could pose that as a statement. I could say in Charlotte's web, templeton the rat is a hero.
Josh Hall:I could give kids some think time and then I would have them get up out of their seats and I would have them go to where they would go on the opinion line, whether they strongly agree, strongly disagree, they're neutral. And then once they've all lined up on that opinion line, I could then have them turn and talk to their neighbor about why they chose that part or why that was their opinion.
Josh Hall:And then from there I would say, "okay, those of you who strongly agree, why do you strongly agree that Templeton's a hero? Those of you who strongly disagree, why do you strongly disagree? Those of you who just maybe sort of agree but aren't sure. But we're getting kids up, we're getting them moving. Think about, they had to first process that and come up with their own opinion and then they were talking and then we were sharing out multiple opinions. And I think it's always important to remember that kids' opinions, like it could change. Like I could say you know what, I didn't think about that perspective. And that's what teachers love about the opinion line the most is we're getting kids talking, but we're also getting them seeing different perspectives.
Sari Laberis:Thank you so much for sharing that strategy, Josh, and giving us just an overview about discourse. I think you named so many of the benefits, but absolutely if you think about the difference between just calling on one student versus having them actually all think about it, then physically move to the spot and then, if they change their mind, they get to actually move and see each other move and they're, like you said, learning about and listening to and reacting to different perspectives. It's so powerful so we're curious are there any others? If you had to name one more, your other favorite strategy to use to really increase discourse and how intentional it is in the reading class?
Josh Hall:Yeah, I think it's important. We've talked a lot about discourse being like a verbal exchange of ideas, but I think it's important to remember that discourse can also be a written exchange of ideas. And so another one of my favorite and actually it's a I call it a fan favorite because anytime I use this with teachers or administrators like they love it, and I've had them say like I'm going to go use this in a staff meeting and teachers are like, oh, I'm going to go use this, like tomorrow, but it's the snowball where again I will ask a question and then, instead of just automatically starting to call on kids, I give the kids a moment to think and process, write down on a piece of paper. You could have them put their name on it. You don't have to. It depends, like, what my purpose is, if I'm just wanting to get ideas out there, but then they they crumble it up like a snowball. They again. This is where there's so many variations and it can just add so much fun and excitement to the classroom, because I could have them all throw it to me and then I could read out their written ideas. I could have them look and make eye contact with a partner and then throw it to the partner and then they're now opening up the snowball, reading the response from their other partner.
Josh Hall:Again, they're still having discourse and exchanging ideas, but one thing it's important to remember is that our kids are all coming to us with different backgrounds, different experiences, different ways that they prefer to communicate, and so, as I'm building discourse into my classroom, it's important to know my kids right and also know and honor what they're bringing into the classroom.
Josh Hall:So the opinion line: it's honoring kids that like to move, it's honoring kids who love to have that verbal exchange and talk and and and all of that. The snowball, it's accomplishing the same thing per se, like kids are sharing their ideas and exchanging ideas, but in a completely different way. And this is honoring kids who prefer to share through written communication versus verbal communication. And there's so many other greats, strategies and ideas like this, depending on how much time you have your kids and what your purpose is. So, to summarize, we hear a lot about discourse, but I think it's important to remember just having kids talk doesn't mean it's going to be effective. So we have to be intentional, we have to plan for it, and we're gonna have fun with it, so I'll leave it there.
Danielle Sullivan:Thank you Josh so much. I totally agree and, as a former special education teacher myself, having a variety of opportunities to share, to validate and affirm the students that are in front of you is so important, and I love the idea that discourse doesn't has, doesn't just have to be verbal. There can be movement, it can be written, but it's all talking about text. Let's talk about text baby, anybody? Great, okay. Well, unfortunately, that is all the time we have for today. Thank you so much, Josh, for all of that amazing wisdom and strategies. We appreciate you and educators, we'd love to hear from you! First off, if you're listening, please subscribe, we would love that. Secondly, we would love to hear from you what strategies are you using in your classroom? So, please continue engaging with us.
Sari Laberis:Get inspired by following us on social media and please tag us in your posts on twitter, @curriculumassoc, and Instagram @myiReady. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest or want to be a guest, email extraordinaryeducators@cainc. com. Subscribe where you listen to podcasts and if you'd like to help more educators like you, join the conversation please leave a review.
Danielle Sullivan:And remember, be you, be true, be extraordinary.