Standing on Solid Literacy Ground My Journey to Discover My Core Beliefs: Part 4

Purposeful talk is crucial – lots of it – teacher to student, student to student –conversational as opposed to interrogational.

I remember going to school in silent classrooms; lunch and recess were the only havens for social interaction, discussions, and conversations. Thankfully, in recent years, teachers have embraced the importance of purposeful talk in the classroom.

Along with the understanding of the importance of classroom talk, teachers face a harsh reality. Kids don’t understand how the science of discussion works. They struggle to listen to others. Rarely do they build on what others are saying to extend a thought. Asking questions to gain understanding is unheard of, and arguing a point without getting into a scuffle… well, we have work to do. This leads me right back to Core Belief #3.

Literacy skills and strategies must be explicitly demonstrated and modeled.

Before discussing how parents (a child’s first teacher) and educators can explicitly teach conversational talk, let’s explore why purposeful talk is crucial in a reader’s literacy journey.

When students engage in conversations, they become more invested in their learning. Discussions encourage them to express their thoughts and feelings about the text, making learning more relevant and enjoyable. Opting out is less likely when discussing possible answers to a guiding question. Once a participant gets the ball rolling, others can easily join in and engage.

Conversational exchanges push students to think critically and analytically. When students discuss ideas, they learn to assess different perspectives, integrate their own thoughts with the opinions of others, and develop critical reasoning skills.

"Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards." ~ Theodore Zeldin

Talking about concepts helps solidify understanding. The highest level of understanding is having the ability to simply explain a concept to someone else. When students explain their thinking to others, they reinforce what they already know. This process of verbalizing thoughts leads to deeper comprehension.

Regular purposeful talk helps students develop essential communication skills, but it doesn’t just happen. It must be directly taught, deliberately modeled, and systematically practiced. Next time, we’ll look at the most effective strategies for teaching children how to have rich conversations that result in deep understanding.