The Literate Potential of Collaborative Talk.

Noting that collaboration can enhance children's ability to solve problems of increasing difficulty, this paper discusses the theory of collaborative talk in the classroom and how it can be applied. The first section of the paper introduces the notion of collaborative talk by describing a classroom setting and offering an excerpt of two children working on a project and planning together. The second section explains more fully the rol' 4f talk in active learning and how it facilitates cognitive development and independent learning. The third section looks at collaborative talk as enabling and empowering children's learning, and exhorts teachers to help students without overpowering their efforts, while the fourth section discusses the characteristics of collaborative talk, including achieving a shared understanding of a task, and offering opinions and alternatives. The fifth section illustrates how collaborative talk works in one classroom by offering excerpts of talk from a third and fourth grade classroom. This section points out specifically where the teacher clarifies the conversation without dominating it. A final section discusses the attainment of literate thinking through talk, and notes the connections between literate talk and literate reading and writing. (Twenty-nine references are included.) (JC) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ***********************************************************************