Literacy and Technology

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November Newsletter

Sharon Taberski, an independent consultant and teacher of 28 years, recently offered some thoughtful ideas about the design of our classrooms to make them more interactive. She discussed a need to not only construct our spaces to be more interactive, but to also construct our language to encourage interaction.

A recent concern is that we have adopted the language of tests within our classes.  In other words, in teaching to the test, we begin to adopt approaches that require the same type of interaction with our students; meaning that we simply rattle off simple recall or short response questions at the expense of rich conversations and discussions.

In response to this, Taberski believes that there are structural room design things that we can change, curriculum modificaitons, as well as language things we can take on.

The first of these is changing the structure and design of our rooms.  She offered images of classrooms that were designed without desks.  Instead, the room was set up with furniture and chairs placed throughout the room in various set-ups for group work and reading.  It seemed almost radical to envision a room without the rows of desks.  By simply designing the space to accommodate small and large group discussion and interaction, she believes that teachers become more aware of how much they lecture and talk.  Redesigning our spaces allows us to move the center from the front podium of the teacher to the group areas of students.

Additionally, Taberski encouraged teachers to create space for student interaction, which means that within the design of our curriculum and lessons, we empower students to take on more of the talking.  Creating space means developing relationships with and between students so that they feel comfortable sharing and getting involved in the discussions.

Finally, she offered some thoughts on the very prompts we use for our discussions.  Too often, we ask for simple responses versus deep responses.  We ask students to give the answer that we have in our heads, so it becomes a game of “can you read my mind” versus an open and honest discussion on any given topic.  As an alternative to our “What?” and “How?” questions, Taberski offers the following prompts:

• Why do you think this is so?
• Can you say this another way.
• Tell me more
• Can you give me an example?
• What do you think caused that to happen?
• I’d love to hear your thoughts
• How are ___ and __ similar?   

Kylene Beers in Adolescent Literacy (the book we are reading for this year’s Literacy Planning Committee) reiterates this same type of environment.  She writes, “What if authentic assessments were more important than multiple-choice tests?  What if asking the probing questions were valued more than providing the correct answer?  What if learning content in the textbook were substituted for figuring out what to do with that content?”

I believe that the answer would be a pretty engaging and interactive environment, and I encourage you to consider the possibilities of what that might look like in your room.  

Download the full newsletter here.  In this month's edition you will find reading tips for students, plus lessons using stations and close reading.