High-Quality Student Talk in the Early Grades

Language development in the early grades not only has short-term benefits in learning how to read but also is linked to long-term benefits of academic language success in middle school. In terms of student learning, not all student talk is created equal. Teachers can intentionally structure activities to focus on high-quality talk as a way to promote literacy and to facilitate creativity and thinking skills.

4 ways to bring high-quality student talk into the classroom

1. Ask questions that encourage decontextualized talk. The goal of questioning is to encourage thinking. Questions that elicit yes or no answers do not encourage vocabulary development or critical thinking skills. In contrast, decontextualized talk is a great way to develop a student’s language and thinking skills. Decontextualized talk consists of conversations that are removed from the here and now.

A teacher asking a child what they ate for dinner the night before would be an example of decontextualized talk because it occurred in the past. When students are getting ready to go out to the playground, asking them what they plan to play with at recess is another example of decontextualized talk. These types of questions naturally encourage thinking and are beneficial for language development and reading comprehension because they help students understand vocabulary and grammar in a natural way.

2. Purposeful partners and structured conversations. In preschool and early primary grades, structuring talk time by creating purposeful partners is one way to allow for maximum communication opportunities. Purposeful partners ensure that all students have a chance to talk. In order to help structured talking time be successful, it is important to first teach and model what it looks like and sounds like when one partner is talking and the other partner is listening. 

Anchor charts for partner talk expectations create a helpful visual for students and can be referenced prior to partner talk times. Intentionally selecting partners who will allow for the most opportunities for communication is important. For example, partnering two quiet students together will help them both have a chance to talk, rather than partnering a quiet student with someone who loves to talk. Partnering two students who both love to talk will help them learn to take turns listening as well.  

Structuring read-alouds, circle time, and morning meetings with purposeful partners helps ensure that all students are getting language development opportunities. When students have the chance to answer questions with a partner, it gives everyone an opportunity to talk, rather than asking a question where students raise their hands and only one student has the opportunity to answer. For example, during circle time, having one partner tell about the weather, and then the other partner tell what clothes one would wear for that weather, gives both students a chance to talk. Having a daily “What Would You Rather” question allows students to think about what they like and then talk and explain to their partner. Here are some questions: 

• Would you rather ride the bus or ride in a fire truck?
• Would you rather do a puzzle or play with Legos?
• Would you rather have a Popsicle or an ice cream cone?
• Would you rather ride a bike or ride a scooter?
• Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet unicorn?
• Would you rather eat french fries or pizza?

3. Read-alouds with intentional questions. Another way to increase student talk is by incorporating read-alouds with intentional questions. This is a great way to get students thinking about literature and communicating with one another. Intentionally creating questions ahead of time that are linked to vocabulary in the story, as well as questions that support decontextualized talk, strategically promotes thinking. For example, if you read the book Snowmen at Night, by Caralyn Buehner, some vocabulary words to incorporate into questions might be anxious, droop, gather, thrill, giggling, and crooked. 

Next, open-ended questions are a great way for students to be creative in their thinking about the text. Here are some example questions that work for multiple stories that encourage thinking:

• Tell me more about...
• What do you think will happen next?
• Would you want to be friends with any character in the book and why?
• What would happen if...
• What did you notice about… 

4. Creativity and natural language. Incorporating time for students to have time to be curious and creative allows for many natural language opportunities. STEM bins and art bins are one way to do this. These are plastic shoebox-size tubs that hold manipulatives that students can create with. Many of the items in STEM and art bins are items already in the classroom. Some manipulatives to include in the STEM bins are pattern blocks, regular blocks, Legos, Play-Doh, Popsicle sticks, Unifix Cubes, and playing cards. Art supplies such as markers, colored pencils, scissors, glue sticks, straws, paper, hole punch, and Play-Doh can be used to create different projects.

While students are creating, it is important to give them time to talk about what they are making: Asking how it could be used and where they got their ideas helps increase their thinking and language development. One student might create roads and bridges out of Unifix Cubes while another student makes dinosaurs out of Play-Doh. Letting students tell each other about their magnificent creations celebrates their learning and promotes language development.  

By intentionally structuring opportunities for students to talk in the classroom, teachers can facilitate language growth and development and provide a foundation for literacy development.