When your students are getting the hang of accountable talk (and using accountable talk prompts), you can introduce a tool to help monitor how it’s going. Use a big piece of chart paper to draw a diagram:

During a group discussion, draw a representation of the conversation. Connect-the-dots to show the pattern of talk. For example, if the teacher initiates the talk, a student responds to the teacher and then the teacher asks another student a question, the diagram would look like this:

Since you are working to increase student conversation, your goal may be a diagram more like this:

When students get used to using this diagram, you can ask them to self-monitor small group discussions. Just give one member of the group a sticky-note and ask them to track the discussion. It will be “evidence” of their accountable talk.

This is a simple template for progress monitoring. It’s an excel file, so you can enter the specific categories according to grade and standard. I included a couple of examples. Download the Progress Report here. It looks like this:

Show, Don’t Tell
You probably won’t get great results if you tell a group of kindergartners to go to their desks and write about a memory. Instead of telling them what to do, you’ll have to show them each step.  Each time you teach them a technique or strategy, show them how to use it. Walk them through the entire process and encourage participation. You’ll need a big standing easel and chart paper so they can all see your work.

Choosing a Shared Experience
If you’re working on memoirs (writing about things that have happened in their lives) and you model “My Vacation in Florida”, you might loose them at airplane.  Instead, choose events that you do together. Of course you can write about big events like field trips, assemblies and field day. But you can also write about smaller events that happen everyday like reading games, science projects and library visits.

Model Your Thinking
Maybe you collected rocks as a science activity and you chose to model writing about that experience. First, think out loud: “OK, I think I’ll write about finding my rock yesterday. That was fun. What do I need to do first?” Kids will help you think it through: “Put your name on your paper!” Think out loud through the entire process. “I remember when I found my rock. I was over by the slide. I’m going to write about that. My first sentence will be, ‘I ran out the door’. I know how to write ‘I’. Next I’ll write ‘ran’.”

Reinforce Strategies
Choose a couple of strategies to reinforce during the modeling. If you have a word wall, for example, use it. If the students have alphabet charts on their desks, you should have one handy also. You might say, “Let’s see… ‘ran’. I’m going to look on my alphabet chart for the rrrrr sound. Here it is; just like ‘rocket’. R!”

Complete the Process
If your writing project will take more than one day, it might be tempting to tell the students, “OK, today you’ll finish your story from yesterday. Go ahead and get to work.” You’ll probably need to show them how to do this. Take out your model. Re-read it. Notice and correct a mistake. Think out loud about how to pick up where you left off. In other words, show them each step through completion.

The weekly magazine Science conducted a huge study to investigate the quality of the elementary school experience. The results were published in USA Today. Here is an excerpt:

• Fifth-graders spent 91.2% of class time in their seats listening to a teacher or working alone, and only 7% working in small groups, which foster social skills and critical thinking. Findings were similar in first and third grades.
• In fifth grade, 62% of instructional time was in literacy or math; only 24% was devoted to social studies or science.
• About one in seven (14%) kids had a consistently high-quality “instructional climate” all three years studied. Most classrooms had a fairly healthy “emotional climate,” but only 7% of students consistently had classrooms high in both. There was no difference between public and private schools.
Although all teachers surveyed had bachelor’s degrees — and 44% had a master’s — it didn’t mean that their classrooms were productive. The typical teacher scored only 3.6 out of seven points for “richness of instructional methods,” and 3.4 for providing “evaluative feedback” to students on their work.
Whether a teacher was highly qualified, had many years of experience or earned more mattered little, says lead researcher Robert Pianta of the University of Virginia.
Of the standard measures studied, “none of them makes a noticeable difference,” he said.

My Thoughts:
Many of the decisions made in a classroom are not made by the teacher. Instead, policy makers hand down mandates, school districts implement policies and principals enforce compliance. So, the percentage of time devoted to science, for example, may not be left to teacher discretion. School districts choose instructional programs that ensure continuity among schools and secure various sources of funding. Teachers often feel stifled by the stringent guidelines - and unable to provide the “richness of instructional method” that they would otherwise offer. Having said that, good teachers do incorporate more small group time.  Good teachers find a way to create rich instructional climates and provide evaluative feedback regardless of program parameters. The most interesting part of this study for me is the piece about teacher qualifications. The study suggests that good teaching isn’t defined by years of experience or education. I think any educator or administrator would agree.  It’s also an important point for parents when it comes to choosing a school.