{"id":3,"date":"2016-02-04T00:09:07","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T00:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/actionresearch.minchacademy.net\/?p=3"},"modified":"2022-01-20T09:16:09","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T09:16:09","slug":"book-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.minchacademy.net\/actionresearch\/2016\/02\/04\/book-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Action research:<\/p>\n<p>Focus: <strong>Book Talk<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Year group: <strong>Yr 3\/4 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Date:<strong> Jan 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Reference:<strong> \u2018Tell Me\u2019 by Aidan Chambers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Description:<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 Talk around \u2018The Tunnel\u2019 by Anthony Browne, starting as a whole class for one week and then more focused work with group of 7 pupils for one week, all during \u2018reading time.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Reflections:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Time: time is of the essence and also possible stumbling block: the more time we put in, the deeper the pupils\u2019 responses and the richer the learning but how can we balance time spent on this with other demands on \u2018reading time\u2019\u2014eg to teach them comprehension skills?<\/li>\n<li>Talk: this is all about the talk rather than the reading. While ongoing re-reading of the text became an important part of the process, it was the time spent talking rather than reading that made this such a valuable activity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Possible ways forward:-<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Classes to focus Book Talk on short stories and\/or picture books and\/or poetry instead of longer texts.<\/li>\n<li>Book Talk to be used for work with small groups who need to develop a broader reading diet.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>Holding back: This was a constantly challenge for me. The temptation to step in with a point of view and\/or a \u2018why\u2019 question was all consuming at times. It was a particular challenge when there was a lull in the discourse and I became concerned that the \u2018talk\u2019 was drying up. Even when I stepped in with one of Aidan Chamber\u2019s general or specific questions, it felt like I had jarred the pupils\u2019 thinking. As with any good conversation, the talk must always lead on from the pupils\u2019 previous response or you lose interest. The Book Talk questions, while they are all open ended and judgement free, should still only be used where natural to ask.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Must remember:-<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>In this context, what I, the teacher, think matters little. This is all about bringing on the pupils\u2019 thinking.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>All responses valued: This is also a challenge for the teacher. It is one thing to commit to valuing all responses, quite another to keep one\u2019s reaction encouraging but neutral enough that we don\u2019t unwittingly imply we value one response over another. It is important to allow pupils to give responses when and if they \u2018want to give them. Two pupils started quietly\u2019 here but with the space to think and without the pressure, they were willingly and confidently \u2018joining in\u2019 by the end.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Must remember:-<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>To stay interested but non-committal.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>Group dynamics: Important to vary this to help engagement and spread of ideas. Important also to get the balance just right between pupils contributing freely and some pupils being drowned out by others who contribute too freely. Teaching pupils to listen for a natural pause before they speak is a good conversational skill in itself. Varying the group dynamic and method also important including for example strategies like \u2018snowballing.\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Therefore:-<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Need time to develop pupil skills in this regard- through good modelling and a flexible but firm set of \u2018rules for engagement.\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong><u>Pupil feedback:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2018It felt like we went deeper, in head first and we found out what the book was really about.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I preferred it to doing comprehensions because when you o comprehensions, it feels like you\u2019re being put on the spot, it\u2019s scary because other people might know and you might not and it can make you feel left out.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I like the way we\u2019re all together for Book Talk, that there\u2019s no fear, there\u2019s no right or wrong.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>N Moss Jan 2016<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Action research: Focus: Book Talk Year group: Yr 3\/4 Date: Jan 2016 Reference: \u2018Tell Me\u2019 by Aidan Chambers Description:\u00a0 Talk around \u2018The Tunnel\u2019 by Anthony Browne, starting as a whole class for one week and then more focused work with group of 7 pupils for one week, all during \u2018reading time.\u2019 Reflections: Time: time is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minchacademy.net\/actionresearch\/2016\/02\/04\/book-talk\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Book Talk&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.minchacademy.net\/actionresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.minchacademy.net\/actionresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.minchacademy.net\/actionresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minchacademy.net\/actionresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minchacademy.net\/actionresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.minchacademy.net\/actionresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.minchacademy.net\/actionresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minchacademy.net\/actionresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minchacademy.net\/actionresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}