# data[].attributes.headline
How Much Should Teachers Talk in the Classroom? Much Less, Some Say

# data[].attributes.subject
How Much Should Teachers Talk in the Classroom? Much Less, Some Say

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/how-much-should-teachers-talk-in-the-classroom-much-less-some-say/2019/12

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you carried a stopwatch into your district's schools and sat quietly in various classrooms for a week, timing how much teachers talk and how much students talk, what would you find?

Are lessons dominated by teachers talking? Do students have a robust role in discussing what they're learning? Or are they mostly answering procedural or factual questions? Are teachers consciously monitoring how much they talk? Should they be?

Research and front-line teacher experience suggest they should be. And some teachers are using new tools like apps on their phones to help them reflect on their classroom talk habits.

Most educators agree that it's important for teachers to get students talking about what they're learning. Doing so can get students more involved and interested in what they're studying and help them understand it better. It can also yield valuable insight into what students need, and improve achievement.

"If you're talking all the time, how can you hear the impact of your teaching?" asked John Hattie, a laureate professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia who has analyzed research on "teacher talk." He's concluded that teachers should talk less and think more carefully about when they're talking and the kinds of questions they're asking.

Teachers who have experimented with changing the balance of student and teacher talk in their classrooms, and researchers who study it, say that simply shifting the ratio isn't enough. The real goal is finding ways to spark productive classroom discussions.

'Surface' and 'Deep' Stages

There are many ways to do that. Getting students to talk more about their learning means teachers must carefully plan lessons that include more open-ended questions. But before teachers can consistently do that planning, they must navigate a deeper shift. Educators who have revamped their classroom talk habits say they've had to reinvent their roles as tellers and become askers and listeners.

"It's more than a collection of strategies. It's a mind shift," said Rosie Reid, an English teacher at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, Calif.

Therese Arahill, an instructional coach in New Zealand, described that mind shift.

"I join their discussion, ... answering their questions," Arahill said via Facebook. "It's an attitude. Moving away from teacher ego, toward student voice, student agency."

Research documents the dominance of teacher voices in classrooms. Hattie's synthesis of studies on the topic, detailed in his 2012 book, Visible Learning for Teachers, found that teachers talk for 70 percent to 80 percent of class time on average. His own research produced an even higher average: 89 percent.

All that talking doesn't necessarily produce good learning. One study tracked middle and high school students and found their engagement flagged the most when their teachers were talking. Others show that most of teachers' questions seek lower-order responses like factual recall.

On the flip side, researchers have found that students' comprehension, engagement, and test scores improve when they get to discuss what they're learning. But research hasn't elucidated many details that could guide teachers, Hattie said, such as the right ratio of monologue to dialogue and how talk patterns might need to shift to suit students' grade level or the topic being taught.

Hattie's own studies, in classroom "labs" at his university, suggest that teachers should talk more as students are acquiring information and shift into a questioning mode as they're deepening their understanding, he said. He encourages teachers to split their lessons into "surface" and "deep" stages and plan distinct strategies for each.

Measuring and Analyzing

Many teachers start with the simplest piece: paying attention to how much they talk. Some are using a new app, TeachFX, on their phones or laptops to measure it. They click it open as class begins, and afterward, the app emails them an analysis of talk patterns, such as how much the teacher talked and whether he asked open-ended questions. Another app, Visible Classroom, designed by Hattie, offers similar tools.

Reid, who is California's 2019 teacher of the year, said TeachFX helped her spot a pattern she needed to change.

"I was talking at them too much at the beginning of class, when my students are at their freshest," she said. "I realized I need to use that time to do engaging warm-ups instead."

Jamie Poskin, a former English and math teacher who developed TeachFX as a Stanford University graduate student, said he's been surprised that teachers find the app so useful by itself, even without professional learning linked to it.

"They're telling us that just seeing the data profoundly affected their perspectives," he said. "They're shocked by how much they talk and how little their kids talk."

Once they see that feedback, Poskin said, they "unlock knowledge they already had" and start using it, such as deliberately including more open-ended questions in their lesson planning and making sure they extend the "wait times" between asked and answered questions.

One strategy Reid uses is to get students to reflect regularly on their own talking. She distributes what she calls "metacognitive cards" that the teenagers keep on their desks during class discussions. They make notes about things like whether they built on classmates' ideas or cited textual evidence and how much they talked. They evaluate their participation and set goals for improvement.

Finding New 'Moves'

An instructional coach from Hampden, Maine, Susan O'Brien, encourages teachers to do what she did with her 5th grade students when she was in the classroom. O'Brien used nine "talk moves" designed by two Massachusetts researchers to promote "academically productive" discussion.

To facilitate conversation, O'Brien rearranged her classroom so students sat in groups at tables. She taught them things to say in discussions to help them speak, listen, and build on one another's ideas, such as, "Let me see if I understand what you're saying" and "Can you say more about that?"

And she had to make another big change: She had to talk less and listen more. She started walking around the tables, eavesdropping on students' discussions.

"What I saw was that students started leading their own learning instead of having me up front doing sit-and-get," O'Brien said. "They were challenging each other and stretching their own thinking."

Cris Tovani, a literacy consultant and instructional coach whose 2017 book with researcher Elizabeth Birr Moje, No More Teaching as Telling, explores ways to reduce teacher talk, said that one of her favorite strategies for promoting good classroom discussion is using a simple chart she developed to record her observations as students discuss what they're reading, in small groups or as a whole class. She calls it "the discussion catcher."

In one section of the chart, teachers can jot down quotes or interactions they see that reflect good discussion, like one classmate helping another understand something, and share them later with students. Teachers can also use the chart for their own planning, noting areas of misunderstanding that could use a follow-up mini-lesson.

Revising the kinds of questions she asked, and waiting longer before providing answers, were important changes Tovani made in her classroom as she tried to get more students talking, she said. When students made comments, she'd "toss the ball back to them" with responses like, "Why do you think that?" or "Tell me more."

"Teachers hate wait time, but kids hate it more," she said. Talking about ideas together, rather than quickly resolving a question with a "right answer," produced more complex, interesting discussions, she said.

A Colorado high school history teacher, Lucas Richardson, came up with six strategies to build meaningful student talk in his class. A big one, he said, is asking questions that aren't designed to get a predetermined answer but instead aim to offer insight into students' thinking.

Whose Voice?

Richardson likes to start class with students' voices, staging 90-second "micro debates" about controversial topics. He restricts himself to no more than 10 minutes of talk at a time in his 70-minute class periods. He also has students do more ungraded writing in class, he said. That allows them time to think about what they want to say and is especially helpful with quieter students, he said.

A 2017 project called "Who's Doing The Work?," inspired by the book of the same name by teachers-turned-consultants Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris, explored a variety of strategies designed to get students talking more and got strong, positive results: After only six weeks of using those strategies, 90 percent of the teachers who participated reported that they talked less and their students were more engaged.

Led by Student Achievement Partners, which provides instructional coaching, several small groups of elementary teachers tried to expand students' own leadership in their learning. Instead of preteaching before children read a text, they'd let them read-or they'd read aloud to them if they were young children-and then ask questions like, "How did you figure that out?" Before correcting wrong answers, they tried using open questions like, "Is that right? How do you know?"

Teachers in the project also worked to downplay their own talk and facilitate discussion among students. They used such prompts as, "What do you think? Agree, disagree, or add on," and "Let's hear from three more people and decide if we agree." Instead of calling only on students who raised their hands, they tried asking everyone to write their responses down before a discussion began.

Responding to the survey after the project, one teacher said that "students are doing more of the thinking" with the new strategies. Another videotaped herself teaching before and after the project, and the second video showed "more students were contributing, thinking, and tracking" what their classmates said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Much Should Teachers Talk in the Classroom? Much Less, Some Say

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Are teachers consciously monitoring how much they talk vs. how much their students do? Research and front-line teacher experience suggest they should be.

# data[].attributes.headline
How to Empower Every Student to Talk in Class—and Why It Matters

# data[].attributes.subject
How to Empower Every Student to Talk in Class—and Why It Matters

# data[].attributes.body
A short article with immediate opportunities to apply

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Empower Every Student to Talk in Class—and Why It Matters

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By creating welcoming, well-facilitated opportunities for in-class discourse, educators can help level the playing field.

# data[].attributes.body
This is the full article that we used during our learning session today.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Zaretta Hammond, a former teacher and college writing instructor, is an influential curriculum designer and trainer who works with school districts on issues of equity, literacy, and culturally responsive instruction. She is the author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students (Corwin, 2014), which positions culturally responsive teaching as a method for honing cognitive capacity in students and supporting independent learning and agency. She is currently working on a book on instructional equity.

Where do you see student engagement fitting into instructional equity?

For me, equity is about making sure every student is a powerful learner-that's the equity goal we should be shooting for. So, I don't see instructional equity merely in terms of system metrics like getting more kids into AP classes or advanced algebra. Because if we get more kids in advanced algebra, but they can't carry the cognitive load required for advanced algebra, that doesn't help anybody. When we think about equity as making sure every student reaches their intellectual capacity so they can carry a heavier cognitive load-so that they can take part in deep learning that is rigorous, for example-then we see how critical it is to create the kind of intellectual curiosity and engagement that allows us to kick-start students' information processing and meaning making. And I mean true intellectual engagement, not just having fun. Too often we reduce engagement to hands-on "activities" or to a lesson that's fun and interactive, but we don't necessarily connect that interactivity to academic rigor or cognitive capacity building. And that's the thing that's so important. For me, the question is: Do we do enough to create classroom environments for students to be intellectually curious? The problem is not typically with the kids, who always come in with intellectual curiosity on some level. It's with the environments we are creating.

What common mistakes do you see schools making in terms of student engagement, particularly with respect to students who may be struggling?

I think one of the biggest mistakes we make, particularly for struggling students, who are disproportionately children of color, is that we employ a pedagogy of compliance. I mean, if you look at what's being put in front of these students sometimes, it's kind of mind-numbing. There's no complexity to the work. It lacks any real-life context to address the typical student question of "What's the use of me learning this?" The learning is too decontextualized and compartmentalized. By contrast, you could use something like place-based learning, where students are trying to solve a local problem-for example, a water issue in the community, or a land-erosion pattern, or even a problem like too much garbage in the cafeteria. Take the example of the organization Agency by Design Oakland, which has a whole curriculum (in collaboration with the Culture of Repair Project and Maker Ed) around the concept of "repair" in the community. The questions they have students asking are real, complex, and interesting. Teachers create a compelling context for having students use the skills and information they are learning to build and preserve things of value.

Falling into a pedagogy of compliance that values orderliness over the messiness of complex work means we miss the opportunity to ignite engagement naturally. What we know from the science of learning is that when human beings try to figure something out, the brain is fired with intellectual curiosity. The brain loves a puzzle-that's the type of complexity that stimulates engagement.

Schools say they are doing different types of inquiry-based or project-based learning, but too often it's just a series of one-off activities for struggling students to do something "fun," but not cognitively interesting. Then, after the activity, we're back to compliance-focused pedagogy-meaning teachers do most of the talking and thinking, while students aren't creating anything or actively processing what they are hearing or reading. We need to be orchestrating curiosity. Why not start class with a provocative question or a puzzle related to the topic to ignite that intellectual curiosity? Instead, we squander the first 5 to 10 minutes of class with learning target review and a tepid "do-now."

Another mistake we make, again especially with struggling students, is over-scaffolding instruction. Remember, the curiosity we're trying to spark comes in the wondering, in the process of trying to figure something out, in the complexity of seeing connections between things that don't seem like they go together. But we edit out opportunities for this productive struggle and in the process make the content bland. We over-scaffold for our lower performers because we don't have enough trust in their ability to struggle productively without stressing out. So we micromanage their experiences. We scaffold out the curiosity and complexity, which is actually what ignites their brain.

Are there specific principles educators can glean from the science of learning-another long-time focus of yours-to set the conditions for greater intellectual curiosity and engagement?

I think number one is that we have to create a community of learners. We have a tendency to focus on relationships and community-building as purely social-you know, the culture of the classroom, kids getting along, that sort of thing. But what we don't do is create a set of studio habits for learning in community. Think about what artists do when they come together in a studio. They create a community of practice. They learn skills to develop their craft. They learn to critique and analyze each other's work. They extend and stretch themselves cognitively to get better through feedback provided by peers as critical friends. But in classrooms-again, especially in those with students who are low performers-we are afraid of critique or feedback that asks them to level up their skills or stretch themselves. Everything is very nicey-nice. We are afraid of damaging kids' self-esteem. But the reality is that students already know they are struggling, and that's what's damaging their self-esteem.

We have to instill community habits for growth in learning. Competence precedes confidence. When I'm a competent learner, I have the confidence to engage in intellectual endeavors that might stretch me, might confuse me, or might lead to productive struggle. That's precisely what the science of learning tells us makes the brain grow and allows us to carry a greater cognitive load. But if I'm just coasting and everybody's afraid of challenging me, I'm not getting anywhere cognitively, and I disengage. So now you have a pedagogy of compliance mixed with a culture of niceness. Sometimes they mask one another. Neither allows students to grow as learners.

You've talked of trying to marry the science of learning with culturally responsive teaching. Where do you see the need for convergence?

Actually, it's not a matter of convergence. They are just two sides of the same coin-that's what I want educators to see. We need to understand that the responsive part in culturally responsive teaching is the schema part of the zone of proximal development: It's this area of prior knowledge we can build on. I think educators get caught up in the culture part of culturally responsive teaching, and they mistake the whole thing for antiracist education or multiculturalism. That's not what culturally responsive teaching is. Culturally responsive teaching is about tapping the schema, or the funds of knowledge, that the student brings in; it's not just about trying to build self-esteem because his racial or linguistic identity is superficially represented in a text. As a teacher, I need to recognize, honor, and actually use students' funds of knowledge to make learning sticky. The science says learning for understanding happens when we integrate new knowledge with our existing knowledge. So, the more the teacher knows about a student's schema, the more she then can start to engage that student by making "cognitive hooks" between the learner's context, interests, cultural knowledge, and the new content in the curriculum. If the teacher wants to make material sticky, she contextualizes it-she uses metaphor and analogy. But if she doesn't know who those kids are, she won't pick the right metaphors to use. She doesn't know how to connect the new to the known.

From an equity standpoint, how do you think schools can best address the issue of "learning loss" or instructional gaps from the pandemic?

The reality is that students have unfinished learning. When we understand that this is unfinished subject-area learning, we see it's not "learning loss." Brains are learning machines. That is what they do. The reality is that all our students learned something during the pandemic. The problem is that we're not leveraging that. So, answering the question of how do we leverage that home-based or community-based learning becomes the starting point for how we get back to subject-area content. It's kind of an anchor and twist strategy. We anchor in one element-"Oh, I know that"-and then we move to connect to the new thing that we want them to know or learn. This is how all learning happens. So first we have to stop staying that students lost something, then we have to try to figure out what they did learn and use that as part of the schema that allows us to make connections.

How concerned are you that the focus on loss might make schools double down on compliance-driven education?

Very concerned. That's what's happening now-we talk about equity, but we go back to a pedagogy of compliance, especially for BIPOC students who may be behind. We see it in talk about high-dose tutoring and more pull-out programs focused on remediation. Schools say they don't have time for project-based learning, or maker spaces, or any of that because they have so much ground to make up. But we make up ground by actually using intellectual curiosity to turbocharge students' engagement. We need to water up the curriculum and instruction, not water it down.

What's your advice to school leaders to avoid watering down learning?

One recommendation is to bring in the tech tools that some kids were using in remote learning. Lots of classrooms used collaborative programs like Padlet and Jamboard, which were very interactive and gave kids more of a voice than they may have had previously. It gave them opportunities to be in discourse-not just talked at. That can create bridges between academic content and students' interests. It's a small way of not doubling down on what's been lost but instead building on kids' strengths and what's relevant to them. That speaks to this larger idea of building on students' curiosity, bringing in those multi-modal elements to the intellectual life of the classroom, so students start to see learning as not just the purview of school but also of life.

Another piece of this is to help students think about how they learn-again, so instruction is not just being done to them. We need to give them some ownership of their learning and ways of tracking their own progress. As humans, we love to know where we are in relation to a goal or achievement-there's a part of our mental make-up called the progress principle that ignites this kind of motivation. We need to help kids exercise this habit of mind. Let them see where they are and how they are getting better, so we're not just talking about what they lost but how they can grow. As kids start to see they're moving toward competence, they become more confident and engaged. That's the motivation cycle, and it can accelerate learning without an emphasis on "loss."

As an instructional expert, what makes you most hopeful in what you are seeing as schools reopen this year?

I'm hopeful about the discussions I'm seeing around reimagining schools through more engaged teaching and learning. I think educators have recognized that we can trust students to carry more of that cognitive load when we coach them around learning skills. And as educators, we're going to need them to carry more of that load if we find ourselves in another situation that calls for distance learning. When we trust them so that they trust us enough to be in a learning partnership, we help them grow into their potential. When trust is there, students give us permission to push them to higher levels. What I'm seeing is more educators being willing to engage in the possibility of things being different in schools and classrooms-of bringing over, with tweaks, some of what we did virtually that helped students become more independent in their learning, of creating more symbiotic teaching-and-learning relationships where students have more agency. Things are still in flux, and school leaders and teachers have a lot on their plates right now, but I am hopeful that we're starting to see more thinking around what authentic, engaged learning might look like in the near future.

Editors' note: This interview has been edited for space.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Zaretta Hammond on Equity and Student Engagement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
To help students grow as learners, schools must resist the pedagogy of compliance.

# data[].attributes.body
A terrific resource for anyone wanting to increase the level of classroom talk in their classrooms.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Teaching Kids to Talk with Clarity and Purpose

Practical strategies for teaching talk across the school day and in every subject. Classroom video shows the work in action!

Shana Frazin and Katy Wischow passionately believe in the need to help students develop strong talk skills across the school day, in every subject, to prepare them for their academic lives and lives as active citizens outside of school. Using a unique "cycle" for talk that's similar to the writing process (generating, choosing, developing, acting, and reflecting), they name the predictable things we do most times we engage in a conversation, and show us how we can teach into those parts.

Shana and Katy provide practical strategies for teaching four important purposes for talk that exist both in the classroom and in the real world:
* talking to build relationships
* talking to play with ideas
* talking to clarify, analyze, and argue
* talking to report.
They offer a clear description of each purpose, the "when and how" to teach into those purposes, and what to do when things go awry. Classroom video brings the content to life showing what the talk looks and sounds like in action.

(click any section below to continue reading)

Contents

Part One: Foundations of Talk
Ch. 1: Why Teach Talk?
Ch. 2: Talk Is a Cycle, Too
Part Two: Purposes for Talk
Ch. 3: Talking to Build Relationships
Ch. 4: Talking to Play with Ideas
Ch. 5: Talking to Clarify, Analyze, and Argue
Ch. 6: Talking to Report
Part Three: Leveling Up Your Talk
Ch. 7: Reciprocity: The Relationship Between Listening and Talking
Ch. 8: Making Talk Visible: Celebrating, Going Public, and Assessing
Ch. 9: Tackling Talk Trouble

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Practical strategies for teaching talk across the school day and in every subject. Classroom video shows the work in action! - Heinemann

# data[].attributes.headline
Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14

# data[].attributes.subject
Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14

# data[].attributes.body
Chip Wood delves into the growth periods of children and how educators can effectively communicate to support their learning and development. Particularly useful for understanding how to engage in productive classroom talk.

# data[].attributes.headline
Better Learning Through Structured Teaching

# data[].attributes.subject
Better Learning Through Structured Teaching

# data[].attributes.body
This book focuses on how language can be used strategically in classroom settings to enhance learning. It provides practical strategies for meaningful talks.

# data[].attributes.body
A comprehensive guide to facilitating discussions in the classroom, enabling students to take charge of their learning through conversational practices.

# data[].attributes.headline
Article that discusses Kentucky Department of Education Initiative to Increase Learning Outcomes

# data[].attributes.subject
Article that discusses Kentucky Department of Education Initiative to Increase Learning Outcomes

# data[].attributes.headline
Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings

# data[].attributes.subject
Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings

# data[].attributes.body
Provides methods for improving students' academic conversation skills across different subjects, crucial for effective classroom participation and understanding.

# data[].attributes.headline
Talk About Teaching! Leading Professional Conversations

# data[].attributes.subject
Talk About Teaching! Leading Professional Conversations

# data[].attributes.body
Explores the crucial role of conversation in teaching and how it can be structured to foster a positive learning environment. Valuable for teachers aiming to enhance classroom talk.

# data[].attributes.body
An insightful look into the dynamic of classroom interaction through cooperative learning. Shows how structured group talk can support student understanding and teamwork.

# data[].attributes.headline
Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding

# data[].attributes.subject
Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding

# data[].attributes.body
Billmeyer presents strategies for engaging students in rich discussions that deepen understanding of texts across disciplines.

# data[].attributes.body
Quigley explores the essential role of oral communication skills in student success and how teachers can nurture these skills in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.body
Nuthall provides insights into how classroom interactions contribute to learning. It uses research to show how students gain and process information through talk.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Whole Story: Natural Learning and the Acquisition of Literacy in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.subject
The Whole Story: Natural Learning and the Acquisition of Literacy in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.body
Cambourne blends theory with practice to show how natural learning processes can be engaged through conversation, making classroom talk a powerful learning tool.

# data[].attributes.headline
Small Shifts to Limit Teacher Talk Article

# data[].attributes.subject
Small Shifts to Limit Teacher Talk Article

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Guiding students to regularly direct their own discussions brings academic rewards as they gain confidence working independently on challenging tasks.

Teachers want students to reach high goals in the classroom, but Tori Filler, an elementary school literacy teacher in Brooklyn, believes that teachers often undermine themselves by taking the reins of the most important "doing" in the classroom. They might walk students through challenging parts of a lesson, or over-explain concepts that students should, ideally, grapple with on their own.

"As we all do our best to help students meet the high bars we set," Filler writes in Achieve the Core, "could it be that we're missing out on opportunities for kids to do the very work that will help get them there?" Putting the work in students' hands, Filler writes, "flexes the muscle" they'll need to tackle more challenging work on their own in the future and reap academic rewards.

While teachers cannot cede all control to students in a classroom, Filler advocates for a mindset shift that strikes a balance between teacher-led and student-led learning by reducing the amount of "teacher talk."

According to Filler, when teachers first try to integrate more student talk into the classroom, the discourse often resembles a Ping-Pong game between the teacher and one student at a time: "Teacher initiates question, student responds, teacher evaluates the response." Instead, she writes, teachers should integrate activities into their daily routines that create more of a "volleyball discussion" by "asking students to listen to one another and respond to each other's ideas before tapping the ball back to your side of the court."

Teaching What Good Discussions Look Like
Before implementing these activities, it's important for teachers to lay some groundwork for students by helping them better grasp what conversations among themselves should look like.

Discussion mapping is a useful tool that can help students ensure that everyone contributes-as Stephanie Toro explains,"In order to get students to respond to each other, it's not enough for individual students to feel empowered in their own voice; they must see other students as valuable contributors and listen to their voices as much as they would the teacher." A map of who speaks during a discussion should look like a spiderweb by the end, one that touches every student's name on a diagram of the room.

Tools to help students understand and practice productive classroom conversations are also useful. A " Progression of Talk " chart, for example, provides students with a series of steps they can take during a conversation to ensure that comments are relevant, build on what was previously said, and provide room for clarifying arguments, disagreements, and elaboration.

Once you have this scaffolding in place, you'll be ready to implement strategies to ensure that students are doing more of the talking-and heavy lifting-in your classroom.

Let Students Come Up With Ideas First
If you're asking students for their interpretations of a challenging text, or an answer to a thorny question, ditch the hand-raising, writes Filler.

Think-Pair-Share is a simple alternative that gets students dwelling on a particular topic or question and independently coming up with as many ideas or insights as they can. When working with a read-aloud text, for example, try posing specific questions related to the reading for students to think through.

Once they have an answer, or answers, have them pair up with a partner to compare notes and help each other identify gaps in understanding. "This gives all students the time they need to process their thoughts before opening it up to the whole group," Filler writes.

If you're short on time, Turn and Talk is a condensed version of this strategy that can accomplish many of the same goals. Write-Pair-Share is another useful adaptation.

Focus on Getting All Students to ParticipateRosie Reid, a former California State Teacher of the Year and English teacher at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, California, writes for Edutopia that without careful planning, even activities that give students more opportunities to speak can result in just a few students taking advantage of it.

A simple adjustment to try during activities like Think-Pair-Share is to decide who speaks first. The deciding fact can be something as arbitrary as "the student whose birthday is coming soonest." Without this direction, Reid writes, some students will dominate partner talk time.

When it's time for students to share out to the classroom, Reid recommends using a "talking piece" to ensure the discussions aren't being dominated by certain students. In her classroom, she uses a ball that students pass around. Only the person holding the ball can speak, and every student gets the ball once before anyone gets it a second time. Mapping can also help, as it allows students to see who has and has not shared an idea or question yet.

Don't Rush to Clarify the Hard Parts
When students are working through tasks for themselves, particularly hard tasks, Filler writes, a big shift teachers should make is not jumping in to preemptively evaluate how difficult the work is. "How many times have I told students, "Watch out, this part is going to be tricky!" and modeled or prompted them to use a specific strategy?" Filler asks.

Instead, she advises that if students report that a task is tough, ask them to evaluate what is tough about it and how they might sort it out on their own before stepping in to help.

If most of the class is struggling, ask more questions and turn the struggle into a productive discussion for everyone. Ask questions like "What makes this hard?" or "What have we tried?" or ask them to reread a passage and circle specific places tripping them up, which gets students to push through challenging work.

When students are sharing out responses to the rest of the classroom, Filler writes, teachers should challenge themselves not to rephrase or validate what they say with phrases like, "Good, but maybe what you mean to say is..." or "What I think you're saying is..." Instead, try responses like, "Can anyone build on that?" or "Do we agree? Disagree?"

Use Video To Ensure Your Strategy Is Working
An easy way to know if your efforts to reduce teacher talk are working is to periodically record your instruction. Watching a playback of a lesson allows teachers to review their delivery and improve their use of class time.

For example, you might identify key areas of material where you feel that you tend to spend too much time talking and seek to incorporate more student-led activities and discussions. You can also track the effectiveness of activities and make tweaks as necessary.

It's important that before you review your recorded lessons, you have established clear goals for what you're looking for and even a list of specific elements in the video-such as moments when you take the reins from students prematurely-that you can track and improve on over time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Small Shifts to Limit 'Teacher Talk' and Increase Engagement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Guiding students to regularly direct their own discussions brings academic rewards as they gain confidence working independently on challenging tasks.