Embedded Files
Speaking & Listening Anchor Standard 1
Speaking & Listening Anchor Standard 1
Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
The Importance of Speaking & Listening in the Elementary Classroom
The Importance of Speaking & Listening in the Elementary Classroom
Oral language is the base on which reading and writing develops. As such, speaking and listening skills learned at the early grades are vital to future reading and writing achievement and success. Young children and adults learn language by using it, and our classrooms are composed of children that come to school with diverse and varying language experiences. It is essential that our elementary classrooms provide students with the opportunities to learn and rehearse oral language skills.
Listening to language teaches children the structures and unique grammatical arrangements of the English language along with providing exposure to new words and building their receptive vocabulary. In fact, since listening comprehension outpaces reading comprehension until middle school, it is essential that our K-5 classrooms are “language-rich” environments where students hear and listen to the spoken word in ways that purposefully push the limits of their listening comprehension through exposure to new words, figurative language, and idiomatic expressions as modeled by the teacher’s communication and through the texts that are shared orally.
Practice with speaking allows students the chance to “try out” new language and rehearse the words that will later form their written communication. Such rehearsal fosters the active practice of manipulating words to shape expression. Essentially students need to be able to say it before they can effectively write it. If the expectation is for expressive and eloquent writing, then we must build the students ability through parallel practice with speaking. In a risk-free classroom environment, elementary teachers can foster and support students as they begin to understand their role in two-way communication and the power behind learning to articulate through the spoken word.
Classroom Talk
Classroom Talk
Classroom talk provides the forum for students to share their thinking and process ideas and concepts through shared discourse. However, not all talk is created equal. In fact, it is the role of the teacher to create structured opportunities for purposeful classroom talk. Such opportunities should be scaffolded to support students across the developmental continuum of language proficiency. More specifically, teachers need to be explicit about talk expectations through modeling, protocols, and practice. The grade-level Standards provide more specific guidance about how opportunities for purposeful classroom talk can be structured to support student development and growing independence.
Protocols: Active Listening Turn and Talk Think-Pair-Share Pair/Square Accountable Talk
Graphic Organizers: T-Chart Venn Diagram Web KWL Sequence Chain
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