When I was applying for this graduate program at NC State, I wrote a goal statement identifying ways I wanted to grow through this cohort. In this statement, I wrote about my struggle to meet the needs of the diverse learners in my class. I wrote that there had been too many times when I had not had the answers or the resources to find help for children in my care who struggled. I wanted to understand the diagnostic side of my role as a literacy teacher better. I wanted to open up opportunities for the students in my classroom to read and think deeply, and I wanted to understand the breakdown of thinking in those who struggle and intervene on their behalf.
In our last year of the program as we studied Critical Literacy Assessment and Instruction, I discovered the benefits and research behind dialogic instruction. Through changing the way teachers ask questions of their students, we allow readers to make meaning actively, understand social responsibility, and construct understanding as they read. A new sense of self-efficacy leads to students who enjoy reading, and therefore read more and become better readers. As we dialogue about text with students, they learn that their thinking matters. Together, we discuss, respond, evaluate, explore, argue, and draw conclusions from compelling texts that make a difference in our students' thoughts. Even emergent bilingual students benefit from daily opportunities to talk about content in pairs or small groups to explain their reasoning and use newly acquired academic vocabulary. As I wrote in my goal statement nearly three years ago, the students I am teaching today will impact our world. I want them to be literate citizens - masterful readers and communicators - in our global community. I want to instill them with the confidence that they can dig into information and use their findings to communicate effectively with others. I want them to know that their thoughts are important enough to be heard. I want to teach them to express those thoughts well. Dialogic instruction can accomplish all of these goals, especially when our students struggle. |
"Teachers play a critical role in arranging the discursive histories from which these children speak. Talk is the central tool of their trade. With it they mediate children's activity and experience, and help them make sense of learning, literacy, life, and themselves." |