Table 12.1 : Strategies for supporting content talk
Content talk by teachers
Strategy Definition How it helps communication
Using advance organizers Statements or ideas that give a
concise overview of new material
Orients students’ attention to
new ideas about to be learned;
assists in understanding and
remembering new material
Relating new material to prior
knowledge
Explicit connections of new ideas
to students’ existing knowledge
Facilitates discussion of new
material by making it more
meaningful to students
Elaborating and extending new
information
Explanations of new ideas in full,
complete terms
Avoids ambiguities and
misunderstandings about new ideas
or concepts
Organizing new information Providing and following a clear
structure when explaining new
material
Assists in understanding and
remembering new material
Content talk by students
Inquiry learning Students pursue problems that
they help to formulate for
themselves
To formulate and and investigate
a problem, students need to express
clearly what they wish to find out.
Cooperative learning Students work in small groups to
solve a common problem or task
To work together, students need
to explain ideas and questions to
fellow students clearly.
Table 12.2: Major strategies of effective procedural and control talk
Strategy for procedural talk Strategy for control talk
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