Middle Leader News - How to encourage rich conversations.
Collaboration, Rich Conversation and Developing Oral Language
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Our school disposition of collaboration highlights the importance of being able to ask effective questions, listen to peers and respond in a meaningful way. It can be easy to work as a team – taking it in turns to share our ideas, however it can be less easy to work in a team that is truly collaborative and encourage learning amongst its participants. The challenge we are faced with is how to encourage rich conversations that lead to learning, particularly for our younger students.
On the 2nd of August, four of our early years educators and I attended the Early Careers Network Day. Our first speaker was Sandy Houen from UQ, who spoke to us about the importance of oral language and rich conversations with children and below are the key take always from her presentation.
Here are some ideas you may find useful at home that will help develop oral language:
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Pausing: Play with pausing in your interactions with children. · Vary the lengths of time (e.g. 3-5 seconds, 5-10 seconds) · Use your knowledge of your child to intentionally select the length of pauses |
Make Conversations Personal: · Encourage children’s stories · Link conversations to personal experiences the child can relate to |
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Questioning: · Try asking questions you don’t know the answer to · Experiment with ‘I wonder…’ questions, rather than closed questions |
Responding to children: · Repeat the child’s talk or gesture and then pause · Build on what the child says · Use statements · Follow with a question that encourages thinking and reasoning · Paraphrase and pause |
Have a wonderful week!
Nicki Prentice