student language

Our district proficiency for Speaking and Listening;

SPEAKING AND LISTENING: Effectively initiate and participate in a range of discussions by responding thoughtfully to diverse perspectives and effectively argue a distinct perspective by using information, findings, and supporting evidence.

In order for Kindergarten students to meet specific academic goals, they need to be able to understand and articulate these goals- using their own words. I recently conducted an experiment connecting to my work towards ensuring more student ownership and voice. I wanted the children to develop their own speaking and listening proficiency, while meeting specific and essential points. This experiment also connected to the children's development of comprehension skills during our reading workshop.

I used video of the children engaged in conversations in response to a prompt during my mini-lesson as our teaching tool. I played two different videos of their conversations and asked them to be teacher-researchers. The video was our formative assessment and the children were the teachers, exploring important questions; What do you notice? What are you working on? 

The Process

Monday

I invite children to think about everything they know about being a green zone (present) turn and talk partner. I transcribe their ideas on large chart paper.

Tuesday

During our morning meeting I share their ideas back to them. They check if there is anything else to include. Later, during the active engagement of our reading workshop, I videotape the children responding to a question about character feelings. I usually coach small groups during this time, prompting them to say "I think..." or reminding them of the question.

I notice that having the job of videotaping ensures I step back, allowing for more independence.

Wednesday

We watch the video during our morning meeting. Keeping their original list visible, I ask them to be the teachers and use two questions; What do you notice? What are you working on?

Using their list to guide their discussion, they notice that everyone looked, listened, and made connections to peers. Some needed to remember personal space.

I play the end of the video two more times and ask students to listen to one of their peers share an idea. What do you hear? 

After two viewings, a child shares that Ana said WHY the character was feeling upset, she used evidence from the story! She was the only Kindergartener we heard say why. Their teaching point for our reading workshop; use evidence, say WHY!

Again, during our workshop, I film small groups engaging in conversation about character feelings. We use their teaching point from our earlier conversation for our mini-lesson; tell why.

 
Thursday

At morning meeting we watch a few seconds of their video from Wednesday. Their teaching point (focus) was using evidence from the story to tell why.

Following their video I ask, did you do it? Did you hear peers sharing their ideas and use evidence from the book to say why? YES! Not everyone was captured in the video, but the children we heard used the pictures and words in the story as their evidence.

It was so powerful to be able to stop and replay when I wanted to share something I knew was important, but wanted them to discover. Without saying what I noticed, I simply replayed the same few seconds of their video. I wanted to focus in on the language used by one of the children. Finally, after a couple of replays, a child said they heard words like I THINK and BECAUSE. These are important words to use when responding to a text and explaining why.

Self-reflection

Using video allowed for the children to be teacher-researchers. The video was a formative assessment and they had to look closely at their own assessment, thinking about the powerful things they noticed and the things they are working on as speakers and listeners. I was able to step back and let them be the teachers, something that can be hard to do.

During academic choice three children worked together to take everything the community said about being a green zone turn and talk partner and designed a poster for our classroom. Their poster represents our district proficiency for Speaking and Listening in student language, detailing the essentials in their words and pictures.