How classroom talk supports reading comprehension

1
How classroom talk supports reading comprehension
2
Key issue addressed by the study

• This study explored
• the quality of teachers and students talk in
  ten different US primary schools
• the impact of talk on pupils ability to analyse
  and interpret text

3
Characteristics of effective teacher talk
identified by the study

• Features of teacher talk that encouraged pupil
  participation and enhanced their understanding,
  included
• reformulating and summarising what pupils had
  said to make their ideas accessible to others
• using questions that encourage pupils to come up
  with their own ideas
• pressing pupils to elaborate on their ideas, e.g.
  How did you know that? or That is what the
  author said, but what did the author mean?

4
Characteristics of ineffective teacher talk

• Asking a question without following it up or
  relating pupils answers to the text
• Merely checking pupils comprehension often
  through yes-no answers that left little room for
  students to elaborate
• Over-scaffolding pupils learning by providing
  too much information and framing questions so
  that they only had to complete the teachers
  sentence

5
Who were the children in the study?

• 441 students between the ages of six and fourteen
  from ten schools
• The students were from diverse ethnic backgrounds
  and twenty percent were considered to be English
  language learners.
• Twenty one teachers

6
How was the information gathered?

• Researchers observed lessons that included the
  following elements
• reading text aloud to, with or by the pupils
• teacher led whole group discussion for about 20
  minutes
• teacher assigned tasks for small group or
  independent work
• Lessons were analysed against the following two
  criteria
• how well the talk encouraged meaningful student
  participation
• how well the talk helped to deepen students
  understanding of the lesson

7
The criteria used to assess the quality of
classroom talk

• Encouraging participation how far
• did teachers and pupils ensure that all followed
  the discussion?
• did teachers and pupils ensure that answers were
  justified?
• were speakers prompted to explain their thinking
  and draw logical conclusions?
• Deepening understanding how well
• did pupils engage in challenging tasks requiring
  them to explain their thinking?
• did pupils engage in high-level tasks e.g.
  interpreting and analysing for underlying
  meaning?

8
How can teachers use the evidence in this study?

• The study highlighted the ways in which effective
  teacher talk created a learning environment that
  engages pupils in rigorous thinking about the
  ideas being expressed. What strategies do you
  already use to help ensure that classroom talk
  encourages pupils to exploring their own and
  others ideas? What might help extend this?
• To find out what talk is like in your classroom,
  would recording talk by video or as a sound
  recording help? Could you work together with
  colleagues on this in order to identify ways to
  encourage more effective student talk?

9
How can school leaders use the evidence in this
study?

• Pupils responses often depend on the type of
  questions that teachers use.
• What support do you offer to help teachers to
  develop their questioning techniques?
• Do teachers have opportunities to work with each
  other and their students to reflect on how they
  all use particular questioning strategies?
• What CPD could you offer to help develop
  teachers strategies for improving classroom talk
  for learning?

10
Follow-up reading

• Study reference How classroom talk supports
  reading comprehension Wolf, M. K., Crosson, A.
  C., Resnick, L. B., (2005) Reading Psychology,
  26, 2005, pp. 27-53
• Original title Classroom Talk for Rigorous
  Reading Comprehension Instruction
• Summary available at http//www.standards.dfes.go
  v.uk/research/themes/speakandlisten/classroomtalk/
  

11
Feedback

• Did you find this useful?
• What did you like?
• What didnt you like?
• Any feedback on this Research Bite
• would be much appreciated. Please email
• your feedback to
• research.summaries_at_dcsf.gsi.gov.uk