Accountable Talk in the Elementary Classroom

For the longest time, I kept hearing all this buzz about ‘accountable talk’…but I was never quite sure what it was exactly. I knew that allowing my students to talk with each other about their ideas and the work they were doing was good teaching practice. Not to mention, talking is fundamental to their learning. But I also knew that not all talk promoted learning. So, what kind of talk is helpful to engage in for my student’s sustained learning? Accountable talk! Basically, in order for classroom talk to promote learning, it must be accountable.

What I’ve come to understand is that accountable talk is ultimately a classroom practice based on the student-centered discussion – where the students must support and defend their claims with evidence. Think about that for a minute…if you don’t understand what you’re talking about, you can’t really defend it using evidence. This is what makes accountable talk so helpful to learning and assessing. Talking with others about ideas and work is fundamental to learning. It gives us the opportunity to organize our thinking into coherent utterances, hear how our thinking sounds out loud, listen to how others respond, and, often, hear others add to or expand on our thinking. But not all talk sustains learning. For classroom talk to promote learning it must be accountable to the learning community, to accurate and appropriate knowledge, and to rigorous thinking.

Student-centered discussion using accountable talk is so beneficial to your student’s learning. For one, they remain highly engaged because they are allowed to use their natural desire to talk to one another. Having accountable conversation also allows students to process the lesson material much more deeply than teacher-centered talk. By actively discussing specific topics and defending their ideas and opinions on these topics, students internalize the material in a super authentic way. Plus, when you implement accountable talk, you’re easily able to evaluate and assess each student based on their participation in the discussion. Students can transfer the phrases and discussion strategies to non-academic talk.  Don’t be surprised to start hearing accountable talk stems out on the playground!

You can never be too prepared when it comes to teaching your class a new procedure or routine. No matter how well prepared we are, it always seems that a student will catch us off-guard with a question that we hadn’t expected. When you introduce accountable talk, you can bet that at least one student will ask, “Why do we have to do this?” or “What is the point of these talks?” By planning ahead, you can reduce stress and have answers ready for all of those curious questions. Aside from preparing for questions that students have, how will you logistically introduce the idea of accountable talk? With a video?  An activity?  A discussion? Whatever you decide, make sure you have a game plan. If your students see you getting flustered just by introducing accountable talks, you can bet that they too will feel flustered as they try to learn this new procedure.

When you feel that you personally are prepared and well-versed in accountable talks, it’s time to expose your students to this new idea that you will be implementing! While I love using videos to introduce new procedures or concepts, a class discussion is a great way to introduce accountable talks. After all, the whole basis for accountable talks is class discussion! Start by asking your kids if they know what accountable talk is?  Have a brainstorming session where all ideas and thoughts about accountable talk are welcome. You can even make a list as a class and then go back and review it once they understand what an accountable talk is! Explain that in a learning discussion, each contributor to the conversation is held accountable.  This means that each person must give reasons and evidence for their opinions.

This is the presentation I put together that walks through accountable talk and how it can be used in your classroom. It includes all sorts of videos, ideas, and explanations. Click the link for a handout packet that I've made with teachers that includes a synopsis and materials to get started right away.