TLIF Reflection on teaching

Looking at the data as collected by Natalie, the students knew what the strategies were that does not support their learning, i.e. loud noises, annoying students, students walking around etc. At that point, the students did not have any idea of what talking rules were.

When I introduced Talanoa, I initially went through it and assumed that they knew what each word meant i.e. participation, speaking clearly, connect ideas etc. The second day I went through the questions, and asked them what it meant and look like, they had no idea. This leads me to realise that I was trying to move too fast and that I had to try and introduce each 'finger' of Talanoa individually.

I took my focus group separate, focussing on using Talanoa again, although it went a little better, it was still very unorganised and students just talking out of their turn and not listening to each other.
I asked for advice from my colleagues and then tried doing group work with the whole class. My focus students were then divided into each group and took the lead by asking the questions that I provided, but the rest of the class were still clueless. So then I had a chat with Susan. And we came up with the following strategy:

Do whole class short sharp lessons. Focus on Think, pair, share. I do the writing focussing on getting their feedback.

E.g.
I introduce the WALT.
Add that we are focussing on Talk(We are getting better at listening and talking - we know we learn through that).
Ask a question, the student thinks, pair and share.
After talking to a partner, you share what your partner said, not what you said. Reminding them constantly of Talanoa rules.
When they talk, they should look at each other. Build up the expectation of how to behave (knee to knee, eye to eye).
At this stage, less is more.
Reinforce the expectations at the end of the lesson (What did we learn today, what did we get better at today in terms of our talk, and what do we still have to work on).
Be explicit about choosing partners, if it goes well, we can continue where students choose the groups, if not, I will choose them.