Instructional Conversation

Instructional Conversation? Isn't that what I do everyday with my students? This is what I thought prior to implementing planned instructional conversations into my literacy groups. Truth is that just because you as the teacher are speaking and instructing does not make it an instructional conversation! I know who would have guessed right? But instructional conversation means that there actually has to be a conversation between not only you the teacher and the students but also between the students. An instructional conversation is intended to facilitate a discussion where the students are open to proposing questions and challenging each others thoughts and opinions in a productive manner.

Here is how I set up an environment where all of my students are comfortable expressing themselves. When students have a new idea to add to the conversation they make a thumbs up sign. When they have a comment that correlates and adds to the previous persons comment they make a plus sign. The differentiation between the new idea and the adding to someone else’s idea has been incredibly beneficial. The two signs allow me to ensure that I am calling on all students who have a similar thought before moving on to a new idea. And lastly to cut down on the “me too comments” students make a circle with their thumb and pointer finger with both their right and left hangs then interlock the two circles to make a silent connection. I decided to do this because I wanted all students to actively be engaged during group. I feel that the hand signals allow students to share their thoughts with each other and make connections to what another student has said. This not only cuts down on students interrupting each other but helps students to feel that their thoughts are truly validated by both me and their peers.

This is an example of how I used the story Half Chicken to create an instructional conversation. The students were asked to determine what the moral of the story was. I focused on the moral because it not only teaches the students a good lesson but it also it up for debate. The moral of the story is something that students could all agree with or something that their opinions might vary on. I asked the moral of the story in a very open ended way. What it is? The students came up with two different ideas. The first idea one student said was “If you help out people when they need it. Then they will help you back when you need it.” This was something that all students made a silent connection with they all agreed. This was also the moral that I had in mind. Half chicken helps the water, fire, and wind. They then in return for his help, help him escape a dangerous situation. After we discussed that moral another student gave a thumbs up sign for a different idea. I was surprised because I honestly had really only thought of the one moral so I was very excited to hear what she had to say. She said the moral was, “just because you may not look like everybody else does not mean that you can’t do good things.” She was really right this was definitely a moral to the story. All of the students began to verbally agree with her then quickly made plus signs. They then all gave a time where they had helped someone. The students really got what I was aiming for. With the instructional conversation they were able to determine the moral of the story but also connect it to their own lives, which is one of the most important things a student can do.

An instructional conversation is a great way to get students to be a leader in their own education!