Talk Read Talk Write

The image shows an succinct overview of the Talk, Read, Talk, Write steps.

Description

Talk Read Talk Write (TRTW) is the strategy outlined in Nancey Motley's book. It provides a step by step approach that develops literacy skills through structured conversation, active reading, and high quality writing.

How do you teach TRTW?

Talk 1 (1-3 minutes): Have students engage with content concepts and set a purpose for reading:
Tips:
-Ask students a provocative question
-Post a question that requires students to make a choice that they then explain and defend
-Have students respond to a visual related to the content concept. Students share their thoughts with each other.

Read (10-15 minutes): Read an academic text to develop understanding:
Tips:
-List significant key words, phrases or ideas that students use to ensure key understanding
-Directly teach students ways to annotate while reading to record their thinking
-Highlighting PLUS: Ask students to highlight important ideas from the text

Talk 2 (5-10 minutes): Students talk to one another and prepare for writing:
Tips:
-Envelope Please: Create 1-3 open ended questions, place in an envelope, group students and provide time for them to discuss answers to the questions
-Check-in Conversation: Give student groups an opportunity to discuss their annotations from the text

Write (10-15 minutes): Students communicate their content understanding:
Tips:
-Have students make a claim with evidence or provide a clear explanation of their thinking.
-Be sure to provide students a clear purpose and audience for their writing
-Use graphic organizers as a scaffold

Quick Tips

  • Use sentence stems to scaffold the Talk portions of the strategy.

  • During the Read portion, sit with students, dialogue, and ask questions.

  • Modeling and using a graphic organizer prior to writing can help scaffold the Write portion.

Resources

Did you know?

  • Talk Read Talk Write is the approach outlined in the book Talk, Read, Talk, Write by Nancy Motley. It has been used in AISD for several years. You may see the strategy being utilized in district curriculum documents.

  • TRTW is a great strategy to utilize within a Blended Learning Model.

  • TRTW can be enhanced by utilizing additional strategies within each portion. Check out this blog that talks through how AVID WICOR strategies can support this process.