Format
Poster Presentation
Location
Harborside Center East and West
Strand #1
Social & Emotional Skills
Relevance
Table Talk is a classroom instructional strategy used to promote communication among all students. Conversation skills are explicitly taught to students prompting empowerment and a sense of community among diverse and high-poverty populations.
Brief Program Description
Are the skills of conversation becoming lost in today's fast-paced and technology-enhanced world? Table Talk is an instructional framework created to teach elementary students how to communicate and collaborate effectively. Just as technology's ubiquitousness and society's rapidness have sustained, Table Talk seeks to empower students to overcome barriers to successful and productive adult lives.
Summary
Table Talk is an instructional framework created to teach elementary students how to communicate and collaborate effectively. ALIVE conversations are composed of the strategies demonstrating the five elements of successful dialogue: Ask and Answer, Listen, Interview, Voice, and Eyes. These strategies are explicitly taught throughout the school year and students participate in weekly ‘Table Talks’ to practice their newly learned skills and build stamina. Through this teaching and practicing model, students are taught to reflect and self-monitor all conversations, both in the school setting and out in the real world. Considerations and instruction encompass high-poverty rates, ESL learners, gifted learners, and the multi-cultural aspects of today’s classrooms. During the Ask and Answer phase of teaching, students are taught how to ask questions that keep conversations flowing and provide deeper understanding of thoughts and ideas. Teachers learn to let go of the traditional method of lecture-style teaching becoming confident in letting students explore topics using appropriate and productive strategies to produce successful solutions to problems and proposals. Classroom instruction focuses on teaching students to articulate ideas, engage in critical thinking, and solve problems through collaboration and the implementation of higher cognitive processes while students learn to become inquisitive, encouraging, and inclusive in all settings. Table Talk strives to teach students collaboration, communication, creativity, and being able to 'think on your feet' through thoughtful and insightful reflection, feedback, and explicit instruction. Holding an effective and appropriate conversation is taught, modeled, and practiced each day. By bringing conversations ALIVE, Table Talk seeks to take students on a journey of learning that goes beyond the classroom walls and supports the 21st century citizen.
Evidence
Table Talk is based on various discussion models and has become the product of one and one-half years of action-research in the regular classroom. Dealing with students of high-poverty levels utilizes the research of Ruby Payne, Eric Jensen, and other current researchers. The implementation of Table Talk in the regular classroom is a continually developing process that seeks to include and empower all students in being able to communicate effectively in order to participate successfully as adults. This action-research project focuses on a collaborative method of instruction based on best practices and ongoing research.
Biographical Sketch
Jeanine Judd has taught for 21 years in the elementary classroom. Her time has been spent as a regular classroom teacher, as well as a gifted specialist. She holds a BA from the University of Mary Washington and an M.Ed.in Curriculum and Instruction from the American College of Education. In her free time, she enjoys cooking and walking on her farm.
Anne Richardson has taught third grade for five years in Culpeper, Virginia. From the University of Virginia she hold a BA in Psychology and an MT in Elementary Education and ESOL. She enjoys blogging, competing in triathlons, and baking.
Keyword Descriptors
communication, collaboration, critical thinking, conversation
Presentation Year
2015
Start Date
3-3-2015 4:00 PM
End Date
3-3-2015 5:30 PM
Recommended Citation
Judd, Jeanine and Richardson, Beverly Anne, "Table Talk: Empowering ALIVE Conversations" (2015). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 215.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2015/2015/215
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Elementary Education and Teaching Commons
Table Talk: Empowering ALIVE Conversations
Harborside Center East and West
Are the skills of conversation becoming lost in today's fast-paced and technology-enhanced world? Table Talk is an instructional framework created to teach elementary students how to communicate and collaborate effectively. Just as technology's ubiquitousness and society's rapidness have sustained, Table Talk seeks to empower students to overcome barriers to successful and productive adult lives.
