Mod 9 Discussion: Oral Language Support in My Classroom

Turn to your Neighbor/Think-Pair-Share is something I want to focus more on in my classroom. I am usually hesitant to refer to it as "think-pair-share," or even tell the students before hand that they'll be pairing and sharing out right. I usually have students pair with their neighbors and read together, and then have them "discuss and answer the question." I figured that was the best way to keep it focused without everyone freaking out about the pairing/sharing aspect, and going along with a question for the read text could help keep discussions focused (I should note I usually chunk the text a page or so, question, discuss as class, read the next page or so). I still struggle with steering student thoughts while also giving them the space they need and not micromanage them, but that is where sentence starters can come in. Man, I love that idea and can't believe I've never come across it yet (thank god for professional development, aye?). I wan't to take all the provided sentence starters from this module and put them up as posters in the front of my class. Not only can that help jumpstart ideas and help guide ELL students, that can really help laser-focus in on the particulars of the scientific topics we cover. Our topics get dense (several times I have to stop and think "was I even learning this in their grade?") but if I brainstorm and expand the sentence starters and give them to students, that could help decode the subjects substantially.