A Martian visits Earth and goes to a school. This creature realizes that the old people do more talking and do more work than the young ones who sit still and listen. Therefore, the Martian assumes that the younger ones are the smarter ones since the older ones are doing all the talking and working.

Likewise, when I first starting teaching Spanish, my boss shared the idea that the students should be talking most of the time since they have to practice their Spanish. The more I talk, the less they can practice their Spanish.

There are several ways to test out who does more talking in your classroom. One technique is for you to record a mark on a minute by minute chart of the class to indicate who is talking at the start of each minute – a student or you. You can also record the class on a camcorder to analyze later on who is talking when and for how long. In addition, you can ask a colleague to visit your class and record the information for you. In a second technique, you analyze your lesson plan in which you have recorded what will happen in the class by time blocks; if you have not delineated what you are doing and what your students are doing, then break it down. “Class discussion” may mean your three minute introduction and students talking for twelve minutes which would be a 20% teacher talk. It could mean students answer briefly and you respond in length to each of their answers which could be a 70% teacher talk. You can look at how much is teacher talk and how much is student talk and make changes to have more student talk. As students express their ideas, you can better assess their learning progress and decide what you can do to help them grow.

Who talks more in your class – you or your students?

Dr. Harry Grover Tuttle focuses on assessing and improving student learning through low- and high-tech tools.

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