Dialogue is Critical in the Classroom

After having read the articles, watching the video, and participating in the class discussions, I have come to realize that dialogue is a crucial component of the classroom. Perhaps it can be taken further and stated as an important social practice that would benefit literacy skill development.

When envisioning a teacher who always stands at the front and lectures to their students, this paints a picture of a classroom where conversation is one sided and dialogue is minimal to the point of non-existent. We model how to speak and expect the students to listen, but the skills are never reciprocated and the students’ voices, ideas, opinions and even questions are rarely heard or better yet not encouraged. A classroom that doesn’t welcome and provide opportunity for conversation between teacher and students, as well as students with one another, does not provide the basis for communication skill development.

I often hear (and have read) something to the effect that a quiet classroom is one where minimal learning is going on. We seem to know this is not true, yet we are constantly asking children to be quiet and work quietly. We often discourage or shy away from group work, debate or open ended discussions because as teachers we feel that we are no longer in control.

Students need to express themselves orally, not always in written form. We need to hear what they are thinking. We need to listen to their ideas and opinions and use this to inform and drive our instructional practices and topics. Since we can’t get into their “heads” we need to know what is going on in there. In all walks of life there is some form of communication and dialogue that is necessary. The earlier we encourage it, model it and practice it, the sooner the children will be on their way to being effective communicators. In the world of modern technology, they are various forms of dialoguing-instant messaging, chats, texts-we should attempt to implement them all so that our students will use them effectively.

If our goal as teachers is to help our students become effective communicators and problem solvers, how can we believe this will be the outcome if the children are not given the opportunity to speak. Perhaps, we need to also make a greater effort to provide opportunities for speaking in different contexts, for different purposes and even for different audiences. The junior/intermediate literacy resource used in the TCDSB speaks about and dedicates actual lessons to purposeful talks and effective talk behaviours. Children need this to be taught, modeled and feedback provided whenever necessary.