Effective Conversations in the Classroom

As a teacher you want your students to leave the classroom with maximum knowledge of the subject . The classrooms of yesterday, it was only the teacher communicating with the students and it was more or less the format of question and answers approach . The teacher stood in front of the class and lectured the whole period, asked a few questions and the students who always raised their hands would answer and the shy students would stay quiet. End of story, lesson is wrapped, time to move on to the next class. The students did not have much say in their knowledge transfer and they had no conversation with each other. I believe some students never communicated with each other ever the whole year because they didn't had too.Result was the robotic transfer of knowledge from teacher to student and no room for growth and development of oral skills. The new model of learning has changed the phenomenon of communication in the classrooms.

The new model of learning encourages students to talk, to communicate with the teacher and with each other. This practice helps with the students oral language development, critical thinking and problem solving skills. In this new diverse environment, students communicate with their peers from different ethnic and socioeconomic status which helps them to understand each other's culture and diminish the distances. As a non- traditional student, I believe that the group work helped me bond with other students. Our conversations were strictly academic but as time passed I developed friendship with my peers.I am terrible with names but all the moving from table to table and jigsaw method forced me to communicate.I feel proud that I know the names of all the peers within my discipline!

Conversations are powerful sculptors( Zwiers and Crawford, pg.1). This statement led me to think that it's so true. Without knowing ,conversations inform others about our personalities, likes dislikes, behavior, thoughts and beliefs. The list goes on and on. So as a teacher isn't it a great idea to focus on the students academic language so they can express their knowledge effectively. A n academic language is an effective tool to pass your message to others.

Zwiers and Crawford in the book "Academic Conversations" has discussed the importance of academic conversations and effective tools to promote the skill. Chapter 4, he talks about the following features an academic conversation should have. As a future teacher, I would implicate these features in my lessons . I would be touching government and politics. An area that requires mesmerizing speeches, effective target messages for specific audiences and international correspondence.The first feature that Zwiers emphasizes that both partners within the group have to talk. The only way we can do is to give them open-ended questions that will open unto exploring different ideas, problem solving and a different approach to the problem. Targeted questions first of all are to easy to answer and kills the openmindness to different ideas. Conversations also opens the mind to range of ideas that the students never imagined before or introduces them to novel concepts that were unheard of. A teacher can help direct those curious minds to analyze, evaluate and dissect their arguments. That is a helpful tool that i will apply in my classroom. As a political scientist you are always evaluating your theory and providing evidence for validity.

I loved the 3rd feature that Zwiers talks about welcoming controversy and challenge in the classroom. That helps a students to ponder and research and gather information for the topic and they become experts before they know it. One thing I would say to cautious about is the controversy should not demonize a person's beliefs or identity. Things can get ugly pretty easily.The 4 th feature concerning ambiguity. I believe that by having students practice clarification of their understanding of the material gives them the confidence to be explicit.

Students should be encouraged to use the basic principals, law.For example,a history student should evaluate the biases of sources and interpret the past to understand the present situation. The 6 th feature ,I thinks cortical that the students should be able to transfer their knowledge from one class to another . An example learned in history can be used in political science. Or a novel can be referring to both the history and political environment of that time.and the most important factor is that the students should be given the ownership of their conversation. when students are irking in groups and talking ,arguing their side they are actually given the space to evaluate their ideas and have the say to their beliefs.

I remember my school days when the teacher would lecture and go away . I had my ideas that I wanted to share but they were brushed off as not important . Result is obvious, I lost interest. I remained a good student but if I was given the ownership of my ideas I could've been researching more deeply into my discipline. That is why I like the new approach. Listen to the teacher's instruction and then work in your groups independently.We work and have conversations and apply our ideas and analyze each other's ideas and develop respect for each other's views. I believe this brings a positive impact academically and socially.

This is a poster that I would put in my classroom for the students.

This website gives some great tips for teachers to encourage ELL students to speak english

https://owlcation.com/academia/Another-10-Fun-Classroom-Activities-to-Help-Students-Practice-Speaking-English

This was an interesting article that talks about teaching students of how to have a conversation

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/teaching-your-students-conversation-allen-mendler

As I was researching for other articles, I realized that educators have realized the importance of promoting strong academic conversations that will help the students to sculpt their conversations to powerful words of thought. As Zwiers (pg. 1) mentions "We are the product of thousands of conversations"