Edutopia – Susan O’Brien
“I used to think that the perfect classroom had students sitting in rows, hands folded, with their eyes on me. “All eyes on me” was in fact my favorite teacher line. Having an attentive audience was one of the reasons teaching was fun for me. Fast-forward 35 years to my last year of teaching before I transitioned to being an instructional coach—my students were at tables or sitting knee-to-knee in small groups. They weren’t quiet, and they were facilitating their own learning. The chatter was rigorous and the ideas were flowing. How did we get there? I taught my fifth-grade students talk moves—sentence stems and key phrases that help students speak, actively listen, and build on each other’s ideas.” (more)