College Talk

The 1-2 kids are looking to raise the level of their reading comprehension by doing SOMETHING at the end of a book. That could be reading the book with a buddy, acting out a part of the book, talking about a favorite part of the book, making a prediction about what to expect in the book, asking questions about what they've read, sharing what new information they've learned or just wondering and reflecting what the book makes them think about.  So far, many of these conversations have been on the more literal and superficial side - one buddy shares a fact about sharks from his/her book, the other buddy replies with an unrelated fact about Mexico from his/her book without much connection or conversation.

One way we are looking to deepen those conversations to make them richer is to do what we've called "college talk". We have done this with the big group - one person starts off the conversation with a thought, idea or connection about the book. Then another person starts by repeating what they heard and adding their own thinking - "I heard you say... I think..." This dialogue continues as kids take turns growing the conversation (without raising hands - just noticing when there is a gap or stepping back if someone else has started to speak at the same time to wait for them to finish).

There are sometimes long pauses while kids think, trying to bring in a new connection. But the only way to really make this magic happen is by having everyone be a participating member in the talk. This is even more important when this kind of talk is between only 2 people. We have taught the kids that they are responsible for what we call "accountable talk". That it is the synthesis of ideas and the back-and-forth of the discourse that enables deeper comprehension to take place. Mrs. M. and Mrs. A. did a fishbowl conversation as an example of what this should look like to model this practice for students.

Pictured below are our buddy pairs engaged in college talk about informational texts: