Text Talk

What seem to be the most important points? Discuss several of them.

When it comes to Text Talk a few important points that strike me are selecting the right text, quality talk around the book so that the child is able to construct meaning from decontextualized language and asking the students questions to further discussion and learning.

When you are teaching emergent readers, especially kids in kindergarten and first grade, it is very important that you select a book that is relevant to what you are trying to do; making kids proficient readers while developing their language and comprehension ability. That being said, you should select a book that provides a little challenge to the children. These books should contain words that not all of the kids might be familiar with, to help them increase their vocabularies. At the same time having a book that is relevant to another topic in your class or certain social issues is also important.

Quality talk around the book is also very important. Any kid can sit and listen to their teacher read and not truly gain anything from it. However by talking about what you have read and having the children discuss various ideas only helps to further their understanding of the language and also broaden their vocabulary. By having the children talk and reflect about certain ideas brought up in the text, it helps to show that they have an understanding, and if they have an understanding of the text and language, then they will have a better grasp on becoming a more proficient readers.

Another important point that I thought the article raised was asking students questions throughout the reading. Such questions are Initial questions, Follow-up, Pictures and also vocabulary. Initial questions are questions that require students to describe and explain ideas, rather than simply recalling information from the text. Follow-up questions are questions that require the students to think by using their initial responses to form new ones that elaborate and develop ideas further. Such questions could be why do you think this character did that and what do you think will happen next? As with most children’s books, there no doubt will be pictures and after you have read a page or two you usually show the children the pictures. Furthermore, upon showing them these pictures you should ask them what is happening in the picture or perhaps point out something specific in the picture. Upon encountering a new word in a story, it never hurts to ask the kids if anyone can tell you the meaning of this word. If they can’t then the teacher should define the word and have the class discuss it further. This is a great way to increase your student’s vocabulary.

Summarize the key steps in planning and performing a Text Talk lesson.

There are several key steps in planning and performing a Text Talk. First and foremost is the selection of the book. You want to select a book that will be interesting to the students and at the same time one that provides the right amount of challenge for the students as well. Furthermore it also helps to make notes on certain pages for questions you would like to ask them. These could be questions pertaining to the pictures, thought provoking questions that make the kids think about what is happening in the story and also questions pertaining to the vocabulary. When you are actually performing your Text Talk, you should show your students the book and ask them what they think this book might be about. As you read, you will probably want to read a page or two at a time and pause to ask questions. Also, depending on your questions you might want to show the pictures before or after you have asked them. If a new vocabulary word surfaces, be sure to point it out and further discuss the meaning of the word, both by itself and within the text. Discussion is really the main key to a text talk, if you can keep the discussion to focus on important text ideas and key components, then your lesson should go smoothly.

Advertisement