What is Accountable Talk?
Talking with others about ideas and work is fundamental to learning. But not all
talk sustains learning. For classroom talk to promote learning it must be
accountable--to the learning community, to accurate and appropriate knowledge,
and to rigorous thinking. Accountable talk seriously responds to and further
develops what others in the group have said. It puts forth and demands
knowledge that is accurate and relevant to the issue under discussion.
Accountable talk uses evidence appropriate to the discipline (e.g., proofs in
mathematics, data from investigations in science, textual details in literature,
documentary sources in history) and follows established norms of good
reasoning.
You are accountable to the LEARNING COMMUNITY when you:
 Actively participate in classroom talk
 Listen attentively
 Elaborate and build upon each other’s ideas
 Work to clarify or expand a proposition
You are accountable to KNOWLEDGE when you:
 Using specific and accurate information (not anecdotal evidence)
 Provide appropriate evidence for claims and arguments
 Are committed to getting it right
You are accountable to RIGOROUS AND CRITICAL THINKING when you:
 Construct explanations and test understanding of concepts
 Formulate conjectures and hypotheses
 Employ generally accepted standards of reasoning
 Challenge the quality of evidence and reasoning
Accountable Talk Stems*
”
Agreement
_____; but on the other hand, _____.”
Disagreement
_____.”
disagree with (or can’t
see) _____.”
Clarifications
“Could you explain a bit more, please?”
“What I heard you say is _______________, is that
correct?
Confirmation
work/mission at _____?”
because _______.”
wonder _____ because __________.”
Confusion
Extension
wondering what if _____.”
I used to think ________now I am wondering _____.”
Review
“I’m curious about ____________?
said.”
* Keep in mind that these are general examples. When you are good at this, you will be developing your own
language stems.