Chalk Talk is a strategy in which students are presented with a particular topic on different posters around the classroom, and they must write something about each topic on the poster in silence. Chalk Talk is done in groups most of the time and allows students to communicate with each other through silent writing. On the teacher’s command, students must rotate to the next poster to write about the topic on the next poster. Even when Chalk Talk is done individually, students can still communicate with one another by seeing what their classmates wrote and generate ideas based on that. Chalk Talk can be written with a marker on the poster itself or written on a Post-It Note, like the teacher did in the Vimeo video below.
I think that Chalk Talk is a very good strategy because it lets teachers know what students processed from the lesson. In other words, it assesses students on what they have been learning from the lesson and what students are still having a hard time comprehending. For example, my cooperating teacher used this strategy in which there were four different posters with four parts of speech on them (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs). Each student was supposed to go around the room and write an example of each part of speech. From using this activity, she learned that her students understood nouns; verbs; and adjectives pretty well; however, they still struggled with adverbs. It is an informal assessment that does not require the pressure of a grade for each student, but still allows the teacher to see what his or her students know and what students still need help understanding. I also like that it allows students to move around the room to complete a task.
I also like that Chalk Talk is a silent activity so that students are not trying to talk over one another. In other words, it allows students to speak without having one student dominate the conversation. Instead, each student gets to speak through writing, and no student is struggling to get their turn to speak. It gives each student a voice, which is good for the students who are shy and have trouble speaking up in class. They do not have to express their thoughts verbally because their thoughts are written right there.
