Roles communications patterns in the classroom can play:
- Build a group identity.
- Ensure that teachers have ways of getting to know their students better.
- Enable teachers to share his or her thinking about teaching.
- Provide a shorthand for quick communication among members and the classroom community.
- Teach meta-cognitively
- Help students understand their similarities and differences and guide them to develop a sense of community.
- Model for students what you want them to do and how to make the class excellent.
- Help students see their strengths.
- Say "Pat your brain" when students do something noteworthy.
- Do "Windshield checks" to help students see if they are clear, have a few bugs stuck to them, or are covered with mud. This will provide the teacher with the with the understanding of how much help the students need.
- Diversify, Verify, Amplify, use these to help students to be challenged in discussions and assignments.
- Allow students to work in the room during lunch this will allow the students to communicate with one another and their ideas, questions, and projects.
- Hold goal-setting conferences, this is when the teacher meets with one students to talk about their progress in a particular area or a particular project.
- Help foster students understanding and ownership of their own learning.
- Use Dialogue Journals, this allows student and teacher to "talk" in ways that often are not possible during class.
- Incorporate Teacher Talk in Groups in Lesson Plans, do with 3-5 students for 5 minutes and check for students understanding of content, skills, assignment directions, and group functioning. This allows students to talk more freely in their small group rather than whole class.
