General Introduction

This blog is part of my Differentiation and Adaptive Teaching Knowledge Base.

I use the terms differentiation and adaptive teaching synonymously. To me, they are the same, as genuine differentiation has always involved adapting your planning and your teaching to meet the needs of the learners in front of you.

For me, differentiation is all the practical strategies, activities and techniques teachers use to personalise learning.

For ease, we can break that down into my five categories of differentiation: Activities, Questioning, Words and Writing, Things the Teacher Can Do and Things You Can Ask Learners to Do or Use.

This blog falls into the category of words and writing.

Talk Then Write

Preceding writing tasks with discussion is of great benefit to all learners.

It gives an opportunity for learners to order their thoughts, articulate these and then refine them.

The medium allows instant editing and immediate responses.

In addition, it is ephemeral – meaning that mistakes are not visible after the event.

A further point to add is that speaking is not a technology in the same way that writing is.

While it must be learned and varying degrees of sophistication are evident in any random selection of the population, the fact is that it is an integral part of human beings rather than an extension – as writing is.

All this means that preceding writing with talking is a way of scaffolding the former.

(For more on this, see my Talk, Discussion and Oracy Knowledge Base.)

Learners can do some of the work that writing requires (ordering information, articulating what one thinks, refining this, choosing the correct words and so on) in a medium with which they are extremely familiar and in which they are, most likely, highly skilled.

Here are ten ways you can help learners to talk before they write:

• Free discussion in pairs.
• Free discussion in groups.
• Discussion in pairs or groups around one or more questions set by the teacher.
• Discussion in pairs in which learners take it in turns to present their ideas to each other.
• Discussion in pairs or groups based around some stimulus material.
• Learners work in pairs and take it in turns to interview each other about their ideas.
• Learners walk around the classroom and find three peers to discuss their ideas with, one after the other.
• Learners work in pairs and share their ideas. Groups of four are then formed, with learners taking it in turns to explain their partner’s ideas to each other.
• Learners work in groups of three or four. Each learner is given thirty seconds to advocate for their ideas. There then follows a minute of questioning. The process is repeated until everyone has had their turn.
• The class is split in half. Learners sit in two rows, facing one another. The pairings that are formed have two minutes to discuss their ideas. When the time is up, one row of learners stands up. They move one seat anticlockwise to create new pairings. A new discussion takes place. The process is repeated a third time before the activity ends.

How can using discussion as a precursor to writing help you to differentiate?

During discussion, learners can order, articulate and refine their thoughts.

This makes subsequent writing easier.

By the time learners begin they will have already made significant progress and will be able to direct their attention to the act of writing.

Discussion is more accessible to learners than writing.

Using the former as a precursor to the latter is a way of drawing in all learners, helping them to access that which they might otherwise find difficult.

Generally, learners like to talk.

Using discussion is thus a way of motivating learners and engaging them with the learning.

When you use discussion to precede writing, you can quickly get learners to a point where they are primed and ready to write.

This makes starting writer easier for everyone, and, in particular, for less-able learners or learners who lack confidence.

For me, using discussion to precede writing is the ultimate scaffolding tool.

I have seen it work so many times, and I strongly recommend it to you, whatever age group you teach.