Chalk Talks

Dr. Pat Norman is the wonderful inspiration and introduction to Chalk Talks—which, if you are unfamiliar, are an incredibly powerful communication tool—especially for topics where everyone has a lot to say and the ideas require and deserve thought and processing. 

A question is written up on the board. Students are invited to silently read and reflect and add their thoughts in a thought web on the board. We have ample time to allow for slow and thoughtful answers, and plenty of time for everyone to participate. We are, of course, welcome to make any notes in our Field Notes, and we will break off into groups to discuss and regroup, possibly even following up with a journal entry to document and share our thoughts. 

Not only does this enable students to better hear each other and in a different format, but also empowers students to raise their voices in different ways—including the continuation of the conversation in the blog with notes, context and a photo of the final board available for review and discussion. Furthermore, the teacher has a variety of data points to collect, from student engagement to the photographic recording of the board, to the group discussions and journal entries.

Arguably most importantly, we all get to practice listening, communicating and connecting in different ways. 

The Richmond School District has a great blog and jnovakowski offers up a great example of a Chalk Talk in action.