AVReading January 2017
In continuing our study of Jeff Zwiers Building Academic Language, this month we will focus on how to create environments where students can develop their academic language through whole class discussions. To start with, Zwiers points out how important it is to get students involved in classes. And though this has been generally accepted by the community in theory, in practice this does not seem to be the case. Zwiers offers research that found 85% of our class time today is devoted to lecture, recitation and seatwork. Part of the problem stems from the very structure of our environments, where we try to “cover” content and material within a given timeline. Class discussions take time, and they often aren’t easy to control so they might shoot off into unrelated tangents. Teachers aren’t always comfortable with the uncertainty that comes with open ended classroom dialogue, preferring to ask quick, low-level qu...