They realized that sometimes we need time away from the distraction of the spoken words to truly reflect and deeply understand written text. This learning activity was met with an overwhelming sense of pride and enthusiasm by my learners. Through this silent conversation, they demonstrated a sense of respect and empathy for one another that had not been evident before this activity. My students not only commented upon one another's thoughts, but also asked questions to push one another's thinking.
My learners not only identified the elements of imagery and figurative language, but also analyzed how her careful selection of words could translate into their own writing. They internalized the lines of poetry then transposed them through the filter of their personal experiences. They connected this poem to a wide variety of other literature and pop culture. Their comments reflected how deeply they were contemplating the text. In actuality, we passed the thirty minute mark and the students were still going strong.
Initially, I predicted that this activity would have a duration of ten to fifteen minutes. They understood that this was an activity that involved thinking critically, not superficially. I explained the procedure for a Chalk Talk to my students, and then we each took a dry erase marker. I selected this poem because it is full of imagery, figurative language, and it lends itself to many different interpretations. We are in the midst of a grade-wide collaborative unit on space. But for this activity, I wanted them to focus on the text and ideas written by their peers, free from the distraction of noise.įor our prompt, I wrote the poem "Night Comes." by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers.
My students are accustomed to commenting, discussing, and debating everything. Those of you who know me know that it is rare that our classroom is completely silent. There is complete silence.no verbal communication. This is an activity where students are given a prompt in the form of a quote, piece of text, or open-ended question they respond using only the comments that they write on the wall. Since painting the wall in August, I have been eager to facilitate a Chalk Talk activity with my students.
This wall has become an integral part of our learning environment that the students are always eager to share with visitors to our classroom. Floor to ceiling, corner to corner became an empty canvas for my students to brainstorm, share, collaborate, problem-solve and create ideas using dry erase markers on this wall. This year, I was fortunate to get to turn one entire wall in my classroom into an idea wall using Idea Paint.
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