Turn and Talk Technique in Student Learning

Turn and Talk Technique in Student Learning

Description

I observed Mrs. Letha interact with her 15 students, five girls and ten boys, in Pre-K from Calvert’s ABC Preschool and Nursey in class, where they learned the letters Ee and Bb and worked on their names, shapes, and numbers. She often incorporated the “Turn and Talk” technique throughout the class activities. Mrs. Letha uses a song to introduce the lesson objectives. The song talks about shapes, numbers, weather, and alphabets, which engages the students and helps the students connect the lesson with the surroundings. As teacher Letha introduced the lesson reading text, Peter’s Chair, she used the “Turn and Talk” technique to introduce the vocabulary. For instance, she asks, “What is a crocodile?” Only three students raised their hands in response to the question. The teacher instructed the students to turn and talk to their neighbors. The “Turn and Talk” promotes participation and collaboration evidence through verbal sharing and exchange of ideas as the students voice their ideas to their peers. The technique also encourages brainstorming as students rejuvenate thoughts in response to directed questions. After about a minute, all the students had lifted their hands to share the idea acquired from their peers. The students prevent valuable responses on the definition of a “crocodile.” The “Turn and Talk” technique gives the teacher valuable ideas to state the conversation, where the teacher appoints one student to share the information they brainstormed. Mrs. Letha also uses the technique when guiding the students through the process of making the rainbow, where the students consult each other on the correct order of making the rainbow.

Analysis: The Relationship between the Technique and InTasc Standard 1 and 8

The “Turn and Talk” technique aligns with InTasc standards 1 and 8 effectively. Standard 1 focuses on learner development, where the instructor understands their students and their learning needs and incorporates effective strategies to enhance their learning and other skills development (InTasc, 2013, p. 16). The “Turn and Talk” technique aims to meet the needs of all students to enhance effective learning and knowledge development. The technique fosters a conducive learning environment, which is a critical aspect that promotes development and better academic performance. Hence, incorporating the technique in the class activities encourages learners’ development and better academic achievements. Additionally, “Turn and Talk” can be an effective instructional strategy that an educator adopts to trigger learning by following specific guidelines. Standard 8 emphasizes instructional strategy, where the teacher uses different instructional strategies to enhance students’ understanding of specific topics (InTasc, 2013, p. 38). The “Turn and Talk” strategy encourages learners to source different insights from their peers in a friendly atmosphere, which promotes knowledge development and a better understanding of specific concepts.

Reflection

Teachings of the Artifact about Myself

            The “Turn and Talk” technique was instrumental in improving students learning. The technique helped the students develop new ideas that aligned with the question asked about the lesson content. “Turn and Talk” supported an interactive and friendly environment where students exchange ideas and develop meaningful thoughts in response to the asked question. The learning atmosphere helps in boosting students’ confidence and self-esteem. Some students have low self-esteem, making them reluctant to boldly voice their ideas to any question directed to the class by the teacher. The “Turn and Talk” technique helps students to rehearse their ideas with one or two of their peers, which increases their willingness to convey their thoughts on the underlying question. The “Turn and Talk” technique demonstrates some personal desires I would prefer to incorporate in my classroom. The technique books teamwork and collaboration, essential in driving better performances. “Turn and Talk” gives students numerous opportunities to contribute to a class discussion and derive more ideas through sharing ideas in smaller group engagement rather than depending on the ideas from the teacher.

The Success of the Artifact

“Turn and Talk” enabled Mrs. Letha to meet the lesson objectives and support a friendly and interactive learning environment. Children prefer an environment where they can freely communicate with their peers. The “Turn and Talk” technique allows students to converse with the people around them and share ideas. The technique promotes different skills development for the students. For instance, the students develop interpersonal skills, where students with different identities, including gender, race, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity, interact effectively regardless of their differences. The Pre-K class has students from both genders, students with different socioeconomic statuses, and one student is from a different ethnicity group compared to the other population. Thus, the “Turn and Talk” technique has cultivated diversity and inclusion in the learning environment, which helps to eradicate any form of discrimination or bias due to one’s identity. The technique contributes toward achieving the average grade performance for the class since it offers all students equal opportunities to learn by improving their willingness to share personal ideas after affirmation from their peers whether their thoughts align with the question asked. “Turn and Talk” also helps to break monotony and make the class vibrant. Listening to a teacher for a long period may result in boredom and diverse attention and concentration on the learning content. Hence, “Turn and Talk” encourages students’ attentiveness and participation in class activities.

Areas for Improvement Related to the Artifact

Despite the “Turn and Talk” technique fostering a friendly learning environment for the students and enabling effective teaching, the technique is subject to some limitations that require continuous adjustment and improvement to make a more effective and efficient strategy in the learning environment. The technique may encourage conversations outside the topic of discussion (Lemov, 2021, p. 512). Students find chatting with their peers in the middle of the class exciting. Therefore, some students may take the “Turn and Talk” chance as an opportunity to talk about their interests, leading to less attention on the assigned topic. To some extent, the student fails to address the topic completely. The “Turn and Talk” strategies may foster poor communication and listening skills, where some students over-depend on their peers as a source of ideas and fail to share their insights on the topic (Lemov, 2021, p. 512). Effective communication is a two-way strategy, where every person should share their ideas to enhance knowledge development. Students who become the only source of insight may feel deprived of their need to learn from their colleagues, which may make them less willing to express all these thoughts on a specific topic. Poor listening skills may also result due to students’ less attentiveness to what their peers are saying. Students fail to acquire knowledge from their partners. Also, the “Turn and Talk” technique can be a source of erroneous information, which leads to the development of weak knowledge on a specific topic if the teacher does not clarify the misleading information.

Action Plan Based on the Reflection

The effectiveness of the “Turn and Talk” technique in the Pre-K class has contributed greatly to the recommendation of implementing the technique in any class. Despite the technique needing continuous improvement, its benefits outdo its limitations. During my future professional career, I will incorporate the technique in all my teaching activities. The technique promotes a conducive learning environment for the students to interact and share ideas. Also, the strategies support inclusion and diversity in the education sectors since students with different identities can effectively interact and share their opinions, which can foster cultural diversity. Students tend to acknowledge their differences and exploit the opportunity to understand how different individuals resonate on specific topics. Also, I will put all necessary efforts into mentoring my colleagues to implement the technique in the learning process, which will build a common learning culture in the learning institutions. The “Turn and Talk” technique will encourage improved overall school performance through its implication in creating an effective learning and teaching environment.

References

InTasc. (2013). InTASC model core teaching standards and learning progressions for teachers 1.0. 2013.

Lemov, D. (2021). Teach like a champion 3.0: 63 techniques that put students on the path to college. John Wiley & Sons.

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I have written a short summary of Mrs. Jones and what I observed in the room. I have included the book link and summary sheet. I also submitted an old TLAC I did last year to give you an example of what she is looking for.

The teacher’s name is Mrs. Letha Jones. She has been a teacher for 25 or more years. She is an amazing teacher, very creative, and knows her way around the room. She is very professional and uses the old-school teaching method. We have a class of 15 students 5 girls and 10 boys. I observed her working with the learners on their names, shapes, and numbers. She always finds fun activities to keep the children engaged. She had the kids make a colorful rainbow with the names by putting them in order. It was a cloud, and the letters in their name were on colorful stripes of paper. She gave them a tracing sheet to trace the first names and 2D shapes. Every morning, she would do morning meetings with a song, talking about the calendar, weather, shapes, numbers 0-10, colors, and identifying the alphabet. This week we are as a family, and she is reading the book Peter’s Chair. Introducing the student to new vocabulary words such as cradle, crib, baby, crocodile, stretch, surprised, rascal, heart, tiptoes, highchair, and accident. Also, we are learning the letters Ee and Bb, and we created a bowling, barber shop, and beauty shop for the letter B. Ee, we did an elephant and E bracelets. In math small groups, the students count objects with five frames and literary their doing their names with fun, creative activities.

Book Link:  Yuzu Reader: Teach Like a Champion 3.0

While reading Chapters 8 & 9 of the book “Teach Like a Champion 3.0,” you will need to complete the chart by providing concise summaries of each principle or technique discussed and its relevance to the TIAI (Teaching Improvement and Assessment Initiative). Remember to save this chart for future assignments and as a reference for your role as a classroom teacher. TLAC Summary.docxDownload TLAC Summary.docx

Choose one principle or technique from chapters 4 and 5 that you have observed in your assigned classroom. You will then write a DAR (Describe, Analyze, & Reflect) following the description below:

Describe specifically how your assigned classroom teacher used this technique. The description should include the purpose and intended learning outcome(s) of the artifact with relevant information such as content area and grade level. Suppose the artifact is from a field-based experience. In that case, the description section should include a class profile with student characteristics such as but not limited to: school district Aberdeen district, school Calvert’s ABC Preschool and Nursery, grade level Pre-K, class size 15 students ( 5 girls and 10 boys), average age 4 and 5 yr old, gender male and female, race/ethnicity all 14 African American and 1 mixed white and black, socio-economic status (# of free/reduced lunch), explanation of self-contained, block schedule, etc., overall performance of the class (grade average or standardized test performance), student exceptionalities, English language learner(s), and any other additional contextual information to provide a clear picture of the field setting.

Analysis: How does this technique relate to InTasc Standard 1 & 8?

Standard #1: Learner Development: The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.

Standard #8: Instructional Strategies: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop a deep understanding of content areas and their connections and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.

Reflect on the benefit of the teacher’s use of this technique and relate it back to what you learned about the technique in Teach Like a Champion. Use these guiding questions:

• What did you learn about the teaching from this artifact/situation? (Feeling)
• What did you learn about yourself from this artifact/situation? (Feeling)
• What do you consider a success related to this artifact/situation? (Evaluation)
• What do you consider an area for continuous improvement related to this artifact/situation? (Evaluation)
• Based upon your reflection, what do you establish as a goal(s) for yourself as a future educator? (Action Plan)
• This should be an additional 1-2 paragraphs.

Please adhere to the following formatting guidelines for the DAR submission:

1. Type your DAR in a Word Document.
2. Use a font size 12.
3. Double-space the content.
4. Ensure that you upload the document into the designated area in Canvas before the due date to receive a grade.
5. Make sure to review your response using the Rubric provided to ensure completeness and accuracy.