Information about an Instructional Conversation

Instructional Conversation
I'm trying to figure out exactly what is meant by this. As usual, I spent too much time trying again to find where in the T.E.L.L. materials it was explained. (B.Y.U. people, an index in these materials would be helpful. And could there be a page numbering system that would be less confusing? This is my third course, and I still haven't figured out how to navigate through the course materials. )

Anyway, I did find some explanation and an example on pages 3:29 - 3:33, and the assignment is on page 3:42 and 3:43, with the scoring guide on page 3:45.

My Plan for an Instructional Conversation
I'm planning to conduct an Instructional Conversation with my target student, K.C., and a couple of other students. My student teacher is reading Ice Story with the students. This is a new book for our department, so I've never taught it before. We've noticed that there are quite a few vocabulary words that can get in the students' way as they read. So, I've decided on an instructional conversation that will have a useful outcome, as well as, I hope, added value for the students who participate.

I'm selecting a chapter the students haven't yet read in Ice Story. The conversation will be designed to bring out from these representative students which words in the chapter will be troublesome for the rest of the kids. (Often I'm surprised by the words my seventh graders don't understand, so this will be a true learning experience for me!) I believe I will need to give these students some instruction on finding context clues and other clues for what a word means. They will identify words, we'll talk about how to figure out what they mean, and for some of the words that aren't easily understood by using context and other clues they will look them up -- either (there choice) in the hard copy dictionary or online.

Clues to word meaning can be context clues (what ideas, definitions, etc. do you find in the text around the word?), syntactic clues, (How is the word used in the sentence?), or semantic or structural clues (finding meaning in the parts of the word). (Am I remembering this correctly?)

Notes on Instructional Conversation from the course materials (T.E.L.L./BEEDE)
From Annela Teemant --
--the most basic took for classroom assessment.
-- according to Roland Tharp, also the most effective tool
-- allows teachers to determine what students can do on their own and where they need assistance (identifying the zone of proximal development)
From Roland Tharp --
-- grounded in dialog (dia = two, log = discourse, word, speech)
-- must structurally alter the classroom to accommodate instructional conversation
-- conversation is interactive, informal, for enjoyment
-- [It really is a combination of instruction and conversation.]

Goal = Thematic Focus
Assessment = prior knowledge and evidence for arguments
Assistance = direct teaching and language development

-- must have a clear goal
-- brings out what the students already know
-- students are asked for evidence for the arguments they present
-- teacher assists through direct teaching and helping students use more complex language

On page 3:31 is an example of Instructional Conversation.

Goal
Assessment
Assistance
Instructional

Characteristics of Instructional Conversation

Inclusive
-- non-threatening atmosphere (but challenging)
-- questions with unknown answers (open-ended questions)
-- everybody gets a chance to talk

Responsive
-- Student conversations (bounce ideas off each other, those ideas direct flow of conversation)
-- connected discourse (connects to past discussions)

Balanced
-- general participation (students take turns voluntarily)

With classroom assessment learning activities and assessment activities feel the same to the students.