Talking in Class: Embedding (2014)

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During the 2012-2013 school year, we undertook and completed the first phase of a CIM action research project on the impact of structured student dialogue activities in the general curriculum, culminating in an eBook currently available in the iTunes store.  The interactive book includes video highlights of implementation and student and teacher reflection as well as research literature and sample lesson plans.  This year, we have focused on sharing our work with other educators in an effort to increase the use of student-to-student dialogue to positively impact student achievement, engagement, and opportunities for assessment.          - Jake Rosch and Brianna Gray

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Workshops

ACS Cobham, Nov 2012 (initial project team)

ACS Hillingdon, January 2014

ELMLE Annual Conference, January 2014

ACS Egham, March 2014

Presentations

ECIS Leadership Conference, April 2013

LISA Job Alike Day, October 2013

CIS Members’ Forum, January 2014

NAIS Annual Conference, February 2014

Direct Student Impact

95 teachers/administrators have participated in Talking in Class workshops (13/14)

• 110 collaboratively-designed classroom activities were conceptualised and recorded at the workshops for implementation in the classes of the participants
• Post workshop survey data reports that 87% of the teachers who attended are “very likely” to or “will definitely” use these lessons in their classes

220 educators (administrators/teachers/Heads of School) have attended Talking in Class presentations

Additional Outcomes

Collaboration

• TiC Team (7 MS faculty from ACS Cobham)
  
• UK ACS campuses: Egham, Hillingdon
  
• Website: linked planning documents for real-time collaboration
  
• International education professionals: Jeff Zweirs (Stanford), Charlotte Danielson, Gregg Glover (CIM visiting scholar, Harvard)
  
  

Professional development

• Presentations / workshops
  
• ACS: Cobham, Hillingdon, Egham
  
• UK: Job Alike for EAL teachers in the London Independent Schools Association
  
• International: European League for Middle Level Education, HoS members of the Council for International Schools, National Association of Independent Schools (USA)
  
• iBook: literature review, research including videos, results, lesson plans
• TiC article published in ELMLE's annual journal, Bridge in the Middle
  
  

Connection with the international school community

• Conferences (LISA, ECIS, CIS, ELMLE, NAIS)
  
• Meetings to share findings with administrators at all UK ACS campuses
  
• Website (over 1300 visitors) http://www.talkinginclass.com
  
• iBook (over 150 downloads) http://tinyurl.com/TICibook
  
• Twitter (over 140 followers) https://twitter.com/talkingworkshop
  

What next?

The Next Phase:

• adding to our research, aligning TiC with common core and IB standards and James Stronge framework for teacher evaluation
• creating an activity workbook/supplementary resources for teachers implementing TiC
• presenting TiC/collaboration/action research at conferences to increase awareness of the benefits of student dialogue
• delivering individualised workshops to ACS schools, based on divisional goals
• delivering workshops to schools beyond ACS to increase strategies and examples of practical application of student dialogue
• publishing articles for educational periodicals increase awareness of the benefits of student dialogue
• using TiC as a way to connect with outside institutions to open dialogue about action research and student-to-student dialogue