A chalk talk is a silent way to do reflection, generate ideas, check on learning, or solve problems. The teacher writes a relevant question on the board. Sample questions: What did you learn today? What do you know about the Holocaust?
How are decimals used in the world?
Each student is given a marker and asked to write down his/her thinking about the question. They may comment on others’ ideas too.
A doubleentry journal is an “access tool” that students can use to hold their thinking. Ask students to divide a piece of notebook paper in half. The fold should be lengthwise, or “like a hot dog bun.” The students do two kinds of thinking by recording ideas side by side in two columns on their paper. Double-entry journals are very flexible. Within a unit, they can be used to deepen text understanding, show thinking behind problem solving, or compare ideas, information, characters, and so on.
Think about the guiding questions for a unit of study. These are big questions that you want your students to be able to refer back to and ponder throughout the unit.
On an 11x17 piece of paper, type the guiding question. The students will return to these questions again and again, continuing to write their thinking on their personal anchor chart at different phases of the unit’s study. It’s amazing to monitor the growth in thinking about a topic’s questions over time.
Students “mark up the text” by recording their thinking in the margins of the hand out, so that it can be remembered and reused. They do this by recording a reaction, asking a question, giving an opinion, making a connection, or responding to how they would relate if they were in that situation.
Students code their glossary/vocabulary hand-out indicating which words they have an understanding of and which words they need more background knowledge on. The students then get into small groups and discuss the words.
Each word has to be discussed and students have to add a question or comment next to each the word.
Exit slips are written student responses to questions about the day’s study posed at the end of class. This only takes a few minutes. You collect the slips as the students walk out. Now what? The goal is to use the exit slips to guide your next day’s instruction. Exit slips are highly diagnostic-- they can tell you a lot about what students understand and what their misconceptions might be. Ideas for exit slip topics: What did you learn today? What were the three most important ideas we learned today-- and why? What would you like me to review in class tomorrow and why?
A specific math problem.
Students think individually, then pair (discuss with partner), then share with the class. Show students how to ask each other questions about their thinking to further true understanding instead of judging the thinking. Examples: I disagree because…I’d like to add that…Say more about what you mean…I also noticed…I’m curious about…So are you saying…I’m not sure I understand what you mean…What evidence of that have you found…I’d like to hear more about…
The students are asked to mark one sentence, one phrase, and one word from their reading that they think is particularly important. They then record their thinking about why they chose those pieces.
Hammon, Leach, and Wright (West Middle School)