Fostering the Language of the Classroom Remotely
You can’t pause learning. We’re always learning something. You can’t pause thinking. We’re always thinking about something. This notion pertains to both young and adult learners alike. Even prior to our current shift to remote learning for children, online learning for adult educators has long been an option. While educational contexts may be shifting around the globe, the common theme to continue to learn and grow ourselves remains a welcome constant. No place is this truer than that of an online course titled, Creating Cultures of Thinking, designed by Dr. Ron Ritchhart.
The Creating Cultures of Thinking online course sets out to explore how we shape classroom culture and mold it to support the development of students as thinkers capable of deep understanding. It is a 13 week, researched based course, grounded in the day to day learning of teachers and administrators, and a virtual offering through Project Zero, a research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Participants sign up in teams with colleagues from their educational setting so they can collaborate, share, and support one another. Educators, with the support of a coach and their colleagues, observe each other in classrooms, hold face-to-face team meetings, apply what they learn, and reflect and write about their experiences.
Eight years ago, I set out as an enthusiastic coach in this course. Since then, I have moved to facilitate and synthesize community learning as a co-instructor with my Aussie colleague, Cameron Paterson. As one can imagine, this particular run of the course took a slight turn as we adjusted our possibilities for teaching and learning remotely. It seemed almost serendipitous that our most recent session focused our attention on language, one of the eight cultural forces in creating a culture of thinking. Since language is an instrument and resource we can readily access from anywhere, and which doesn’t pause either (at least not at our house), we wondered how teachers would leverage this powerful tool in their new context online.
What are some of the key insights educators are sharing surrounding the use of language as a tool to promote thinking and shape their classroom culture in their new context?
How are educators utilizing the Language of the Classroom in their online environments?
How might this shift to online learning impact the language and thoughts of our students, teachers, and administrators?
Some Big Picture Insights
As instructors and coaches, we wondered how course participants would think about language in the new online environments they were creating for their students. Would they see it as less important? Harder to get a feel for its impact? Or might they see the online environment as affording a new way of looking at their language? We were pleasantly surprised by some of the insights. For instance, Coach Lani Brockwell begins by noticing, “The change in our profession has in some ways been well timed for this chapter. It has simultaneously, removed non-verbal cues and highlighted our language choices.” St. Louis School, Milan noticed “how language has changed in the virtual teaching environment. We are now using even more written communication in our daily teaching activities. A lot of the welcoming of students and launching of learning activities is now being done through posts on google classroom, google.chat and email. We generally agreed that we are probably even more thoughtful about word choice here, as there is more time to process what you are saying to your students.” A participant from Campus de Nations, Switzerland adds “The bonus about our current situation of distance learning is that we are able to view our videos lessons, as well as written and recorded comments” “Do our lessons invite curiosity, initiative and agency? Does our comment invite further discussion or does it shut down discussion? Does our comment develop deeper thinking, or just allow students to think that the task is finished?”
The Language of the Classroom
Just as we prepare for the content and learning opportunities we offer, we can also plan for the specific language moves, questions, and phrases that will best promote thinking and understanding. We can begin to focus on the things we say. Our words can shift students' perceptions of themselves and of their learning. A valuable tool we examine and utilize in the online course is “The Language of the Classroom” (see image to the left, click to enlarge), which highlights seven different ways language shapes the learning interactions in classrooms and at home. It also serves as a useful tool for teachers (and our course participants) to identify and reflect on their own use of language.
In the remainder of this blog post, I want to zoom in on a few insights, challenges, and suggestions which have emerged from participants in our online course and that are timely for all educators in our current distance-learning context. I’ll touch on four specific “language moves:” the language of listening, the language of thinking, the language of noticing and naming, and the language of community. For each of these, I will share some of our collective reflections as online learners from across the world and then offer some suggestions for moving forward.
The Language of Listening
The language of listening is challenging for some, noted by a language teacher at the American International School of Muscat, Oman, “Now that we have moved to virtual learning, I have to admit that "listening" becomes challenging for me. I try to find ways, through the nature of the assignments I send, to support and encourage listening, listening to my students, but also the students listening to each other.” In being sensitive to the language of others, educators at the Kambala School, Australia mention, “The language of listening doesn’t just show interest in the speaker; it is about encouraging the speaker to investigate their thinking at a deeper level. The speaker is no longer considered the ultimate authority about a topic.”
Moving Forward
We can demonstrate genuine interest by inviting, clarifying, challenging, or extending students’ ideas. We might ask, WMYST = What Makes You Say That?
We can practice the habit of WAIT= Why Am I Talking and say nothing. Reaching the uncomfortable moment of silence might just be what students need to think, question, and stretch.
The Language of Thinking
Using the language of thinking helps students learn how to think about their thinking. Further, it helps teachers identify the specific kinds of thinking they are looking for in a lesson. Asking students to “think” about (fill in the blank) is often too vague to be helpful. Instead, it’s useful to identify and convey the specific cognitive acts we would like them to conduct.
A Chemistry teacher from Sreenidhi International School, India shares an interesting thought on the two sides of language, “What intrigues more about language is, the different facets it can carve on a developing mind. The language I, as a teacher, can propel my students to take action, initiative, reflect, think critically, connect with many things and communities, motivate them to probe further and also to kill their joy of learning! It becomes a powerful weapon to cripple a young mind. It can be transformed to a powerful tool / resource to build and create an eager mind.” On that note, Coach Nigel Coutts declared, "I think we gain fresh perspectives when we think of languages that exist for particular purposes, perhaps metalanguages or technical/trade languages. This leads us to think about the language of teaching, learning, thinking and the classroom.”
Moving Forward
Promote the language of thinking by using the Understanding Map, developed by the Visible Thinking and Cultures of Thinking projects. The map identifies eight thinking moves necessary for building understanding. As such, this tool provides language that can be useful in modeling our own thinking as well as nurture and press students to deepen their understanding and begin to use more sophisticated language themselves. There are many graphic versions of the famous Understanding Map as well as its translation in many different languages. These versions can be accessed and downloaded using the Resources tab of this website or this link.
Use sentence stems to help students use a language of thinking. In one version of the understanding map (see image to the right, click to enlarge), sentence stems have been attached to each thinking move to use and model the language of thinking. Teachers have also added their own sentence stems to the understanding map to best suit their context and age of their learners. Classrooms have also created a dynamic version in which new sentence stems are added on an ongoing basis.
The Language of Noticing and Naming
Once teachers identify these thinking skills, then they will be more equipped to notice and name them when students are using these skills. Using her learning at home platform, Year 5 teacher from Acorns International School, Uganda, finds herself responding to one of her students after looking closely at a picture, “I can see you have tried to find an explanation to what you see”. The Language of Noticing and Naming models and provides students with more polished language for their thinking. Through noticing and naming, we begin to communicate and demonstrate the value of thinking or whatever it is you notice and name often. Noticing and naming thinking takes a hidden mental skill into the public realm for the benefit of the individual and the group’s learning. This language move sends the message that we are more interested in a student’s behavior of making meaning or being than them giving the right answers. Once you begin to notice something, it’s hard not to notice it again and again.
Moving forward
Embed the language of thinking into the learning so you are modelling in your teaching and in feedback. Use the language of thinking in your directions.
Identify and name the thinking when it arises for example, “That’s an interesting connection” or “That’s one possible explanation, any others?”
The Language of Community
Brisbane Girls Grammar School, Australia reminds us that the Language of Community is important, especially at this time, “The language of community is more important than ever. Students may be physically alone in a space but their network of peers and teachers are there learning beside them. As teachers it is important that our students hear the message - we are all in this together, and we are all here to support one another.” This notion is further noted from The Shipley School, PA, “The language of community was a particular emphasis in a time where so many of our students need their individual well-being taken care of first and foremost. Not only were we using very specific and authentic language in getting students to participate in collective thinking, but we are using other languages and tools available to us to rebuild the classroom community in a virtual space.” A long time educator from Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai analyzes her own language after a recorded Zoom lesson and acknowledges her use of pronouns, “I was amazed by the importance of using key words. Words like ‘We’ and ‘Us’ bring a sense of responsibility.”
Moving forward
Choose pronouns We, Us, and Our to create a sense of community, support, empowerment, and calm (rather than the message of control and separation using You and I).
Incorporate the language of identity by referring to your class as mathematicians, authors, historians, etc.
Create an online space where all learners can share their ideas (Padlet, Zoom chat feature) with a title such as “Our class….” or “Mr. R’s thinkers..”
Concluding Thoughts
A few participants noted parents now play a significant role in creating a language of thinking in which our learners are immersed. This challenge was phrased nicely by a primary childhood educator in Tasmania, Australia, "Whilst it is easy (in most cases) to provide constructive feedback to students, this feedback is also presented to the families. I do not want to discourage or dishearten any attempts or efforts by students/families to engage in learning as it may have been an effort for some families to get to this point." A helpful tool here would be “9 Apps for Parents” developed by Dr. Ron Ritchhart that includes useful language for parents to say/ask their children at home.
As Coach Erik Lindemann puts it, “We continue to draw inspiration from participant reflection and synthesis in our state of flux and high stress. Our use of language is key for the humanization of the learning process as we connect and discover together”. With that in mind, I wish you inspiration and optimism as we continue to navigate our actions and language in the coming days to shape our online classroom culture and create new affordances for our learners. Feel free to follow some of our ongoing conversations on Twitter at #ccotonline
Warmest Regards,
Erika
