end rather than a beginning. It is talking to share results or research, report out on work already completed, or to provide one-way information. And it’s true that we don’t want this to be the only, or even primary, kind of talk kids engage in. However, we realize that there are times when this is, in fact, a valid and useful purpose for talk.
We think that if kids and teachers take this kind of talk seriously as a genre rather than as the default, talking to report will get better and it won’t be the only kind of talk in the room. In an effort to work on talking to report as a genre, it might be tempting to sort kids’ reporting into “good reporting” and “bad reporting” or, more accurately, green-light reporting—reporting that opens the door to other kinds of talk—and red-light reporting—reporting that stops the conversation in its tracks.
We argue, however, that this is a false categorization. Any fact or idea that is reported—“A lobster can live up to one hundred years” or “The sun is ninety-three million miles from earth”—can propel further talk or it can sputter and stall the conversation. What happens in a conversation, whether it takes off or stays put, is both a talker thing and a listener thing. To put it plainly, it’s not only about what the kids are saying, but also about their purpose, their audience, and their talk moves.
Sometimes, talking to report makes sense. There is, after all, a job out in the world called “reporter,” so there’s certainly value in reporting information. It’s worth thinking about when reporting makes sense as the purpose for classroom talk, and how to make it better. To think about when we want students in our classroom to spend time reporting on information, it might help to think about when in our lives reporting is the goal. Are you letting someone know that a train is delayed? Is someone catching you up on a project at work that you missed part of? Are you and your partner discussing new information you’ve learned reading a childbirth book? Did you mention the latest news story about Syria and someone asked you to fill them in on the backstory?
Looking at these examples, we could say that talking to report might
make the most sense when
It seems likely that in our classrooms, we’ll find that there are some occasions when talking to report is precisely what it makes sense for kids to do, and so when conversations feel lifeless and flat, “reporting” talk isn’t necessarily the culprit. One thing that does tend to make “reporting” feel uninspired is that kids tend to overuse this type of talk—they’re reporting when that isn’t, in fact, the most helpful purpose, or isn’t the intended purpose of the conversation. Helping kids see when this talk is useful is half the battle. The other half is
helping kids do it better.
Perhaps you will decide to collect data capturing snippets of kids’ conversations across the day in a variety of different settings. Doing this will provide guidance on where to begin the important work of teaching your students the times when talking to report makes sense and how to report in ways that are meaningful and, if appropriate, memorable.
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This blog has been adapted from Unlocking the Power of Classroom Talk. To learn more visit Heinemann.com