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Teacher Talk- My co-teacher has a very mild and friendly demeanor when dealing with her students. She is very positive way of responding to her students even when they are misbehaving. There is one student especially who gives the teachers a hard time but, my teacher always keeps her cool with him and never raises her voice. When it comes to classroom discussions, she often opens the conversation up to all of her students. They have morning writing every day and they get to pick their topic and she allows them to share their writing and different opinions. She likes hearing different opinions and viewpoints of all of her students

Student Talk: It’s difficult to try to describe how my students talk because there is such a variety in the way the student speak and I also hear the differences in how they speak to their teacher, their peers, and myself. There is also a difference between how they talk to each other during class and during free time. When talking to each other in their free time, they can be harsh with each other, but in a seemingly loving way. I’ve seen this type of talk because I grew up around it. Especially with the boys, the ones that seem to be close friends are the ones who are the meanest to each other. When talking in an educational setting, the students are very respectful of each other. They respond to each other by saying, “To add off of...” or, “I took this a different way because...” Even if they totally disagree with someones answer, they respond in a respectful manner.

My Talk- My students took a while to get comfortable with me, but once they did, they want to talk to me all of the time. Sometimes they try too hard that it distracts them from the work so I have to give them a friendly reminder to do their work and tell them that I love talking to them and there will be plenty of time to talk later. One thing I like to make a point of in any class is that the world doesn’t end if you answer a question wrong and that I’d rather have 10 hands up with wrong answers than the same single hand up. This makes my students more comfortable participating during my lessons and opens up conversation more. I also like to talk to them about things that interest them. For instance, I heard a lot of them talking about BTS and I asked them all about it. It’s a Korean Pop band that all of them love so I had them tell me all about it and I even listened to a song with them. All of this was just to show the students that I care about them and their interests.

Connections to Johnston:

One connection I found was promoting agency especially with behavior. If a student is doing something wrong, my teacher will make it known that they made the choice to do the wrong thing, but they have an opportunity to make a good one to make it a better day. She also uses great language with her students. She always uses positive words, even if students are really acting up. She also let’s students write about whatever they want during their morning writing. This gives the students a sense of identity because they can choose what to write about and express themselves.

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Recently, a boy from Honduras moved to Philadelphia and was placed into my classroom. He doesn’t know any English and just sits through each lesson, not producing any work (which is not his fault.) Occasionally, he’ll get up and walk around the room or take a Spanish book out of his desk to flip through. It’s clear he’s already looked through the book several times and that he needs more materials. Unfortunately, his days in my classroom seem wasted (or rather, not as full of learning as they could be.) I feel like he’s often forgotten. He isn’t expected to do the work the class is doing, but isn’t given any replacement work either. Another student who speaks both Spanish and English fluently is sat next to him and often translates simple tasks for him. In general, as I’ve observed in more and more in my classroom, I feel as though the ELL population (they are all predominantly Spanish speakers learning English) is not as included as they could be. My Co-Op does NOT purposely exclude them, but I believe there is more that could be done to include them… even if it means going the extra mile. A big issue is that my Co-Op is expected to teach using grade level readings and materials during the class’s literacy block. A lot of times the general education curriculum is too intense and these students cannot keep up because of their language barriers. They rarely finish their journal or vocabulary assignments, and focus more on correctly copying what the teacher has written (i.e. the instructions) than getting their thoughts out.

This is the first classroom I’m seeing that has such a high ELL population, and I can see the need for worksheets and readings to be adapted. Perhaps the very new ELLs could have their worksheets printed in Spanish and English. Site words could be hung up around the classroom using both the Spanish and English word. Pictorial clues could be included in with site words or worksheet instructions. Classroom literature could be chosen for the library or read aloud that is written by authors from similar cultural or language backgrounds. During these readings (if they include Spanish terms), the ELLs in the classroom could even help pronounce, read, and explain the words seen throughout the text. They could become the classroom “expert.” It never hurts other students to be introduced to and experience more language. Although adapting and adding supplemental materials in students’ home languages may take extra work on the teacher’s part, it could open a lot of doors for the students left behind because of language barriers.

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1. Teacher Talk
I’m lucky to have a Co-Op teacher that chooses to focus on positive reinforcement and pointing out students who are modeling the appropriate behavior. It is very rare that she has to stop class to tell a student that what they are doing is inappropriate, and she normally has good cause when the situation escalates to this point. Pointing out something a student is doing wrong is often her last resort and has only happened a handful of times, typically this is for a student with reoccurring behavior problems. She works hard to use situations where she or a student has made a mistake to turn the situation into a learning experience. She makes sure to create an environment where mistakes are welcome and students are comfortable sharing their ideas with the group. Often times when teaching, she models her own thought process and poses questions in a way that help students work towards finding the right answer. She does a great job of posing questions that help the students control their learning, allow them to feel as though they are in charge of their own learning, and allow them to have a voice. Through her use of language, my Co-Op creates an environment that fosters safety, focuses on the positives, and encourages learning.

2. Student Talk
A big factor in my classroom that I have seen hinder student talk is the fact that quite a few of my students are ELLs. I find that because of this they are often nervous to share their thoughts or ideas with the whole group because they don’t always have the language to access what they’re trying to say. However, as time as gone on, I have watched several of my ELL students become more and more comfortable and take risks with language in front of the whole group. I believe as time goes on in my classroom and all of the students feel more comfortable with one another that the student talk within the classroom will increase. Currently the group appears very motivated and excited to learn, but shy to share their voices with one another. My Co-Op gives students plenty of opportunities to post questions and share their ideas with the class. During the period of time that I observe her teaching, she is almost always asking questions, drawing on the students’ knowledge they share with the class to make connection, and having students talk with their “shoulder partner” or desk group. The students have multiple opportunities throughout the morning to speak with one another, the class, and the teacher, and have become more and more comfortable doing this as time has gone on.

3. Your Talk
When working with my students, I try to focus on positive language and reinforcement like I see my Co-Op do. I work to pose questions that allow students to come to the answer rather than tell them myself. I also try to shape what I say around the “Growth Mindset” theory. When students are right or wrong, I try to respond in a way that reminds them that learning is working hard and continually trying new thing. I will admit that often times I do slip up and revert back to saying things like “good” or “bad” or “you’re so smart.” I think this is a conscious effort that will become easier over time. When I work with my students I try to give them a voice by posing questions to them and never giving them the answer directly. Growing up, I always appreciated struggling with a concept and being pushed in the right direction by my teacher, but essentially coming to the conclusion on my own. I find that when I work with a small group or individuals, it is much easier for myself to naturally help navigate the student towards the answer they are trying to look for. These are also times where I feel I learn a lot about students because they feel more comfortable sharing in a smaller group size. When I work with the whole group during my lessons, I find I have to plan out exactly what I’m going to ask and when I’m going to give students the opportunity to share their experiences. Often times, students may share something with the whole group that may appear to be off topic or not relatable to the question I had posed to them. When this is the case, I find that I have to quickly come up with a connection to relate it back to what we’re trying to focus on. This is something that I can see as being difficult as of right now, but over time with experience, can become more natural.

4. Connections
The first connection to Johnston’s Work that I am able to see right off of the bat is in Chapter 1. Johnston talks about the power of a teacher’s language choice in a classroom and how it can build “emotionally and relationally healthy learning communities” (Johnston, p. 2). Like I stated earlier, I have seen my Co-Op actively choose to not call students out in front of the class for wrong answers or inappropriate actions. She works actively to point out when students are being role models, working hard, and being kind to one another. She has told me numerous times that she tries to always focus on the positives. I have not once heard or seen any of the students be hurtful to one another. I think a lot of this could be equated to the type of environment and language she is trying to build and model for her students. In Chapter 2 on page 13, Johnston talks about the importance of “confirm[ing] what has been successful and simultaneously assert[ing] the learner’s competence so they will have the confidence to consider new learning.” Johnston then goes into explaining how to apply this concept, even when a student’s response is nowhere near what you expected. This was information was something I really kept in my mind when working with my ELLs at the start of the year. We were working on setting goals and a lot of them really struggled with writing. Often times, I could not make out what they were trying to say on paper, so during individual conference time I would ask them to tell me verbally and expand on their idea. I was always able to find something the student had a strength in, and from there we would work forward to edit what they wrote and come up with new ideas. During these times, I worked actively to find the student’s “leading edge” and build from there. Something else I have seen actively done in my field placement is my Co-Op “asking students to classify a text” (Johnston, p. 14). In the time that I have been there so far, I have seen my students learn a lot about multiple different types of text. My Co-Op does a wonderful job at picking all different types of texts; informational, auto-biographies, chapter books, picture books. After introducing a new type of text, she will ask students to classify different types of texts that she later brings in for Read Aloud/Shared Reading. She chooses books on all different cultures with diverse authors and really pays attention to her students’ background when picking her text. She does a great job at choosing texts that are relatable or present new information.

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1: Classroom Environment and TalkWrite about the classroom talk patterns that you observe, using the following questions as a guide:

Teacher Talk: How would you describe teacher talk?  How would you characterize or classify the types of questions that teachers ask students? What stands out to you about the teacher talk in the classroom?
The teacher asks the students many open-ended questions. She’s enthusiastic and interacts well with the students. At the beginning of each lesson, the teacher reminds the students what they have for homework and tells the students what they will be doing for the class time. I love that the teacher asks the students if they have any questions and makes sure the students are comfortable to share. She doesn’t yell or gets frustrated with the students when they misbehave but instead redirects them.  The teacher conferences with the students throughout class time, asking them questions and confirming they turned in assignments.

Student Talk: How would you describe student talk?  What opportunities do students have to pose questions and share their ideas with others? How and when do students talk in pairs, small groups, and the whole group?
The students are comfortable sharing and asking questions. Only a small amountof her students don’t speak during classroom discussions but all her students enjoy group activities. Students can ask questions whenever but the teacher gives them time to ask questions before they have to begin an activity. Group works are done when students are completing reading assignments that requires they answer questions. They also get to work on Study Island assignments with a friend.

Your Talk: In your own teaching (whole group, small group, individual conferences) what opportunities do you have to open spaces for student talk, voice, and ownership?  What do you anticipate could be the challenges?  What do you anticipate could be the benefits?
During my first lesson, classroom discussion was the one part of my lesson that made me nervous. I gave the students the opportunities to share their thoughts as a class during the anticipatory set and during the closure. Throughout the lesson, I walked around , conferencing with students to make sure they understood the story and are capable of doing the activities. My biggest challenges I anticipated were talking too much, not asking open-ended questions that allow students to connect with lesson, and the students not communicating back. The benefits of my classroom discussions are to understand what my students know and how they are connecting to the lesson. Also , classroom discussions provide me the opportunity to share what I want my students to retrieve from the lesson and give the teacher the opportunity to clear any confusion and to answer questions.

Connections to Johnston: What connections can you make between your field classroom and the Johnston text, Choice Words?  Be specific and note at least 3 different connections.
I connected the classroom to Johnson’s text on Identity. word choice, and agency. The students are able to express their thoughts and connect to what is being discussed in the classroom. The classroom allows students the opportunity to be responsible for their learning when given individual assignments. If students are doing something, the teacher finds positive way to redirect them by choosing her words wisely. The way the teacher and students interact and speak to each shows that both parties respect each other. The classroom should be a place where students are comfortable to speak and the teacher makes learning a partnership.

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I had difficulty picking a student or a group that is marginalized in my classroom because my teacher tries her best to include all her students in the classroom. We have a couple of my students who are English Language Learners (ELL, so we do have students who comes to class in the middle of the lesson from seeing their ELL teacher. When the ELL students come in the class, the teacher just allows them to join the class, doing whatever the other students may be doing at the moment or finishing up other assignments. My cooperative teacher does take the initiative and sends the ELL teacher all the assignments for the class, especially reading assignments, prior to class time so that the ELL teacher can review the assignments with the students. Another way my cooperative teacher caters to the ELL students is that she allows them to listen to the stories the other students are reading or watch a video summarizing and explaining the story to them. This was very beneficial to many of her ELL students when they were doing the Greek Mythology Unit because the stories can be difficult to comprehend.Lastly, I've seen my teacher allowing student to do work on their computer in their native language, as long as they are capable of translating it back to English. Overall, my students, even the ELL students, are included in instruction in my classroom. My cooperative teacher works well with the ELL teachers and the ELL students to make sure they are learning while in the classroom by accommodating their needs and differentiating the way she teaches them.

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I only have one student that comes to mind with this prompt and it is difficult to find ways to help her when the issue should be dealt with by someone with a special education background. One student of mine does not talk. She was diagnosed with Autism at a young age because she wouldn’t speak. Seeing her performance in the classroom, her teachers don’t believe that this was an accurate diagnosis because her lack of speech is her only issue. She writes cery well and does well on almost all of her assignments. In the classroom, she sits alone and will say one or two words to her one-on-one in an almost inaudible volume. Her peers are very kind and helpful with her even though they’ve never really spoken to her. They have known her for years and feel as if they need to help her which is really nice to see. There is a lot of classroom discussion during whole group and small group lessons which leaves her out. One suggestion that I have is to create a separate journal for her to write down anything she would like to add into a conversation and each entry can be given to the teacher whenever she feels comfortable. This would at least give her a voice in classroom discussions, even if her peers dint see it.