Class Discussions

In my classroom I am seeing a lot of instructional conversations, which promotes comprehension through discussion. It is a joy to watch this teacher because she is always assisting the children to think, reason, comprehend, and understand the important ideas being taught. I learned in the Goldenberg article that this type of discussion is Instructional Conversation. The CT does make sure to keep the students on track but tries to step back and let the kids ask each other questions. The CT definitely has to guide the students and asks questions that will keep the students engaged and focused to the task at hand.

The scaffolding that’s needed for response-centered talk to take place is, I’ve always believed, an extremely safe and positive learning environment. If the students respect each other’s answers and conversations then everyone should feel comfortable to voice their opinions. The classroom rules/norms should be set up immediately on the first day of class so the students are able to practice these every day. I believe that it’s impossible to expect student’s to develop a positive and efficient response-centered talk without having a fantastic classroom community beforehand.

Since this is my second week having visited the elementary school, I don’t know each individual student well enough to answer the question about particular types of scaffolding.