With a flick of the lights, children gather cross-legged on the oval, with their magazine/text opened, ready to share. This is Talk on the Oval.
During this next 20 minutes children share content they are wondering about or new discoveries they have made from the books they were engaged with during Choice Reading. The focus is building language/concepts for the community and integrating information from current, and previous, discussions, building a radius of learning for all.
Talk is the root of literacy, and language is the primary way we show what we know— the way we make our thinking and learning visible. Talk motivates children to engage actively in the learning process. When teachers listen to children and ask questions to elicit talk, oral language develops, new schema is created, and meaning is clarified, laying a foundation for critical thinking. The quality of talk deepens when we give children the time and support to express themselves.
During discussions on the oval many tools are incorporated to facilitate/clarify understanding and promote engagement of the children. Some of the primary tools include: literature (books children are reading), additional visuals (photos used to clarify), drawing, echoing new vocabulary, song, realia (living/non-living artifacts), movement (acting out a word), and dramatization (several children acting out a concept) —bringing learning alive!
The choice of tools, or combination of, will vary depending on the discussion and the concept/vocabulary that surface during this time
(see New Structures that Draw out Wonder Discover Feel).
