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The problem

For young students, it can be difficult to talk to others, especially those whom they aren’t friends with. Yet, this is an important skill that students need to learn for life and that they will benefit from in the classroom. As a teacher, I am often asking my students to turn and talk to their partners and they often find this difficult. This year, I decided I wanted to do something about it.

You have to actually teach them this

As with anything you want students to learn, you have to actually teach them to do it, to guide them. This is true of behaviours, for example. Many teachers just expect their students to behave and don’t teach them how to do it. I think that is a big mistake. So my goal is to actually teach students how to talk to each other and get comfortable with that. My first strategy is to get them to practice by talking about something they know a lot about, themselves and their interests. My second strategy is to make it fun and a game with no clear academic outcomes that the students need to worry about. My only concern here is students developing the skill of talking confidently and clearly to others.

The resource

I bought a resource to support this objective called Conversation Cubes. They are dice with conversation starters on them. I thought this would create a more fun, game-like feeling to the task.

The activity

The activity starts with an explanation of what we are doing and why. Then the teacher will give a demonstration with a student. The student will roll the dice and then the teacher will ask them whatever is on the cube. Once the student answers, it is the teacher’s job to keep the conversation going by asking a follow up question for one minute.

Example

Question: What is your favourite Ice Cream?

Answer: Strawberry

Follow-up: Oh Nice, I like strawberry flavour too, why is that one your favourite?

 

Once the example has been completed, students will be randomly assigned into groups of two and then complete this activity together. Each person will practice asking and answering questions.

Conclusion

There are so many things we presume that students can just do without being taught. My experience is that students really benefit from us actually teaching them to do the skills we expect them to do. I am hopeful this will make my class a nice place to be as students feel comfortable talking to each other and hopefully, this will increase their ability to openly problem solve disputes. Please let me know if you try this out, I would love to hear how it goes!

Buy Conversation Cubes
Jake Heading

Creator of GoodTeach and Primary School Classroom Teacher.

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