My inquiry this year was based on research more than ever before. I think that the students and I have a good understanding of 'talking about text' now and I have tried different things with my teaching and learning this year. The original idea came from Aaron's research. As I attend different PD sessions over the year I included more ideas into the sessions with the students. One of the most memorable was including the image of a 'conversation chain' from Jannie van Hees. Most recently the PD session with Cynthia Greenleaf in looking at a text and using it as the basis of a critical thinking conversation.
I think I now need to consolidate all the learning over this year and really spend time working with groups across the whole class to implement 'taking about text'. I believe that all students can benefit from doing this activity. In doing so they are building their oral language skills, as well as being able to give opinions justified by information in the text.
The focus on reading comprehension through oral language was a new area for me to explore and I have leant some good skills in being able to let the students lead the discussion. I found myself needing to ask less questions and being more of a prompter when students got stuck.
One of the interesting side benefits for me has been more regular collection of student voice. This is son easy to do both via google forms and informally with discussing progress using running records. I was pleased to note that the students were proud of the gains that had made over the year.
Where to next - I would like to continue using these sessions across the whole class to build students skills not only in oral language but also in comprehension and critical thinking.
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