Chalk Talk

What Is It?

In a chalk talk silent discussion, students use their chalk or their pen to "talk" with each other or engage in a written conversation about a prompt, problem or question. Often students respond to questions that are written on a poster and engage in a gallery walk around the room to explore and examine multiple prompts, problems, or questions each written on a separate poster.

Why Use It?

This strategy is a great way to promote discussion, encourage participation, and provide students with the chance to think in silence before responding to a classmate. Chalk Talk or Silent Discussion is also a versatile activity that can be used in different subjects with different grade levels, and with teachers as well as students.

Instructional Steps:

1. Develop questions, problems, or prompts that you'd like students to respond to that relate to your particular unit of study. The chalk talk or silent discussion can be used as an activator at the beginning of a unit, during a unit, or as a form of assessment at the end of a unit.

2. Start by explaining the chalk talk concept to students, or consider modeling a chalk talk or silent discussion for students.

3. Be sure to explain to students how they will rotate around the room (if you are having them rotate) and where they will write their responses to the prompts. Help students by practicing silent time, first for 10 seconds, then for 20, then for 30 seconds. Explain how important silence is for the chalk talk.

4. Point to the different posters around the room (they can also be on top of desks), and have students read the questions or prompts written on them.

5. Have sets of different colored markers (5 red, 5 orange, 5 blue, etc) and hand them out to students. Or if you have enough supplies, consider giving each student a different colored marker or pen. That way, you can track each students' comments at the end of or during the silent discussion as a formative assessment. Encourage more movement by telling students there cannot be more than two markers of the same color working on the same poster.

6. Explain the Chalk Talk concept and go over norms with students. Consider making an anchor chart with the norms. To learn more about anchor charts, consult the "Anchor Chart" strategy.

   • Some possible norms that you could develop with students are:

   • Everyone is writing and responding throughout the designated time period and remains silent throughout the activity.

   • Everyone is responsible for writing a comment, reading others' comments, and responding to at least one to three comments on every chart paper.

   • Comments should be thoughtful and further the discussion.

7. Allow 10 to 20 minutes for the Chalk Talk and set a timer so students know when the chalk talk time is ending. It's helpful to walk around, read, and gently point students to interesting comments. You can also engage in the silent discussion with students by writing your own comments or questions on the posters. All writing and responding is done in silence.

8. Encourage students to use symbols to agree with or or ask questions of another person's responses.

9. At the end of the allotted time, have students return to the posters and search for patterns. In pairs, students should read through all the postings and search for patterns and themes (or "notice and wonder"), and record those patterns on a piece of paper. Students do not need to work in silence during this step. They can get in groups by marker color or in any other way that works best.

10. Conduct a whole-group share. Pairs should report out patterns and themes, round-robin style, until all perceptions are shared.

Source: teaching.betterlesson.com/strategy/326