De de de de, De de de de, De de de de

As I've mentioned in other posts of mine, my district is really pushing the "Principles of Learning" approach to teaching. And, as I've also mentioned in other posts, I'm all for this new approach. If it truly benefits students (like I think it will) then I am for it 100%.

Of course, with all new approaches, there is a learning curve. You can't just implement all aspects at once. There are many pieces to the "Principles of Learning". One such piece is accountable talk. Accountable talk involves having the students become more responsible for their learning. In the process, they take ownership of the learning. When they answer questions in class, they are expected to give a valid reason (or proof) for how they came up with their answer. During the implementation of this facet, a habit of intellectual discourse develops. Hmmm.... I have to say that I was kind of skeptical about it too. But, the experience I've had the last couple of weeks is starting to sway my opinion.

During our staff development sessions over the summer, we were provided with a list of accountable talk stems. The stem that I have been experimenting with the last couple of weeks is the "I agree/disagree with ___________ because __________" stem. When I started to implement it in my class, I suddenly felt like I was transported to some sort of alternate dimension. A dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. Moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. Yep, I crossed over into... the Twilight Zone. De de de de, de de de de, de de de de, de de de de, Dummmmmmm dum dum dum dum.

Who were these kids that were talking so intellectually? Certainly not the ones that I was used to. I teach in a school where most of the population in in the low s.e.s. bracket, where most of the population is some kind of minority, where the population doesn't normally use the words "agree" and "disagree". It is totally amazing how they speak once you get them in that mode. Its not always easy to get them there, but thats mostly because of my old habits. I'm sure I'll get better. Anyway, not only does it make them sound more intellectual... the other students seem to be more focused or in tune to what their fellow student is saying so that they themselves can chime in with an agree or a disagree. Truly amazing.

For another interesting anecdote on accountable talk hop on over to Mister Teacher's blog at Learn Me Good and read his post titled "Accountable Counting". Pretty funny stuff!