Turning Around a Turn and Talk
A turn-and-talk is a structure to get students talking to a partner for a few moments. I use turn-and-talks a lot during whole group instruction, especially reading, because it allows for more communicating than me just calling on particular students.

And it all just comes spewing out at the same time.
Is this what I was looking for? Is there any real communication going on? Are students understanding what their partners are saying? Do they even care?
This year I decided to take a different approach to a turn-and-talk. I still loved its simple format, but I wanted a more authentic conversation to happen between students, so I'm trying to "turn around" a turn-and-talk so the focus is not on the talking, but on the understanding.
The chart above is what I built with students to try to switch our priority to caring about understanding our partner, rather than simply sharing our own thoughts. And wouldn't you know it, a byproduct of this new mindset is that students still get to speak their own thoughts, because their partners care about understanding them.
Currently, I'm layering in a few key strategies to continue to transform our turn-and-talks, like:
- FACE: Look your partner in the eyes. Lean in. Smile.
- FEEDBACK: Nod your head. Give caring-cues like, "Mmm-hmm," or, "Really?"
- FOLLOW-UP: Ask a question to find out more and make things clearer.
- REPHRASE: Try saying back your partner's thinking: "So I think what you're saying is..."
As a parallel side note, we are also introducing the 7 Habits of Happy Kids, and Habit #5 is just a perfect fit with what we've been talking about.
I made the poster below to display to help my kids focus on what's really important when we do our turn-and-talks. There are even two versions! Sign up for my newsletter below and get the posters for FREE!
Though it takes a little time to model and teach, turning around the turn-and-talk has made a big difference!