Chalk Talk part 1 #makthinkvis

I have wanted to try Chalk Talk, a strategy from our #makthinkvis bookchat, for several weeks.  However, I wanted it to be an authentic learning experience rather than a contrived activity just to say we did it.  This past 2 weeks, I found myself able to use it in 2 very different contexts.  Chalk Talk requires students to communicate written dialogue, no verbal.

The first was at the end of a unit of study.  I used the “2 Minute Assessment Grid” discussed here,

as a reflection tool for my students a couple of days before the unit assessment.  At the end of the previous post, I wondered how to address student questions/misconceptions.  I chose to recopy the questions onto a post it, placed in the middle of a dry erase poster.  Students were curious as they entered the room that afternoon and saw the posters hanging around.

Students took a dry erase marker and were instructed to respond without verbally talking, to suggest, explain, give examples or ask questions on the posters. 

Notice 2 posters were red.  I explained to students that red flags went up for me as I read the statements from their classmates post-it note reflection on the 2MAG. 

After students had opportunities to respond on each poster, we carouselled around to read responses.  I’ll be honest, I was hoping for more guidance, in depth statements from them.  There were some good examples, but majority were point-blank, straight forward surface statements without in depth explanations.  However, as we discussed the posters, I felt the thoughtful ideas came through.  “Here’s how I remember this…”, “If you can think of it this way…”

Which shows most of them can verbally give ideas, explanations but written is not as strong.  How do we assess them? High stakes testing is almost always written.  Another reason I am not am not a fan.  It just seems unfair we judge students and even teachers based on written, mc tests that don’t allow opportunity to showcase strengths of all students.

Overall, I feel like this task gave students a chance to address those ideas they were still fuzzy on, gaining suggestions from classmates, whether written in the Chalk Talk or our wrap up discussion.  On our unit assessment, questions that targeted the concepts from Chalk Talk, students performed very well on.  I do feel the opportunity to discuss/process verbally as the follow-up is key. A wrap upmdiscussion gave me opportunity to address any unclear / incorrect comments as well.

I look forward to finding more opportunities to use Chalk Talk to move learning forward and make thinking visible.