Integrating Technology Colleagues,
On April 30th Susan Jones posted the brief new discussion thread below to several other LINCS CoP groups: "https://saravanderwerf.com/2017/08/09/stand-talks-the-best-thing-i-ever-did-to-get-students-talking-to-one-another/ As somebody who really struggled with the details of managing classroom activities, this explanation for structuring "talk about this with another student" so that it actually works amazes me :) “
I looked at the Stand and Talk blog article Susan mentioned and replied with the following, that I am also posting here in the Integrating Technology group. What are your thoughts?
Hello Susan, and others
I love this Stand and Talk blog article. Thanks for sharing it. I wonder if Stand and Talk, a great modification of a Think/Pair/Share strategy, could be adapted for use by adult ESOL/ESL teachers, reading and writing teachers, and teachers who integrate technology in whatever they are teaching. For example, I could see adult learners in a computer lab, or who nearly all have portable digital devices in a classroom, who: 1) stand, 2) find a partner to share a screen with, 3) go to a landing page whose web address they have all been given, and 4) who have been given questions to answer about it to discuss and answer and 5) share the questions and answers, orally or possibly on a Google Doc or other group writing tool. Perhaps each pair could be given two questions, and there could be different sets of questions. This activity might take a little longer than a typical Stand and Talk, and after standing to find a partner, it would probably be sitting, looking at the same web page, talking about the questions and looking for answers together. Sharing what each pair should be interesting to all the learners since they have all studies the same web page, even though the pairs might have been given different questions about it. I might use a "fake news" web page or a product-promoting web page disguised as a news report, without specifically mentioning what kind of web page this was, but where my questions focused on investigating the quality of the information, such as: 1) Who sponsors this web page? 2) Do the authors have a bias? If so, what is it? How do you know? 3) Are any sources cited? If so, are they sources you can trust? How do you know? 4) Are there ads on this page? If so, what kind? Is the main purpose of this page to sell a product or products? How do you know?
I would be interested to hear others' reactions to the Stand and Talk modification of a Think/Pair/Share strategy? Have you already done this? Was it effective? If not, do you plan to try it? If so, let us know what you did and how it worked. It seems like the sort of strategy that would work immediately but become more effective over time as the teacher and students get used to it. Your thoughts?
David J. Rosen, Moderator
LINCS CoP Integrating Technology group