Encouraging Academic Conversations With Talk Moves
Sentence starters that students use to join a class discussion encourage both academic thinking and social connectedness.
Teachers at King Middle School in Portland, Maine, make these sentence starters easily accessible by taping a talk moves printout to students’ desks. King Middle School developed these talk moves inspired by Classroom Discussions: Using Math Talk to Help Students Learn, Grades 1–6, Second Edition, written by Suzanne H. Chapin, Catherine O'Connor, and Nancy Canavan Anderson (Math Solutions, 2009).
This video is part of our How Learning Happens series, which explores teaching practices grounded in the science of learning and human development.
Edutopia developed this series in collaboration with the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
For related information, please see the National Commission’s report “From a Nation at Risk to a Nation at Hope.”
Special thanks to the Science of Learning and Development Initiative, Turnaround for Children, Learning Policy Institute, American Institutes for Research, and EducationCounsel.