Are you wondering how to boost interaction among your students within your world language classroom? Struggling to find effective strategies that get students engaged while listening, reading, and writing This week in episode 76 of Growing with Proficiency The Podcast, I am joined by Tan Huynh. He shares his insights into the powerful Talk Read Talk Write (TRTW) model, pioneered by Nancy Motley.
What is Talk Read Talk Write?
Tan has embraced TRTW to enhance the learning experiences of multilingual students, meticulously using the model to facilitate meaningful processing of input while students read and listen, and to scaffold student output when they are writing or talking. TRTW offers a robust framework for lesson planning, enabling students to engage deeply with the content and each other through reading, listening, and writing activities.
It may be robust, but it is also a straight-forward framework. As Tan explained, the title caught his attention. The structure was put together in Nancy Motley’s title of the book. Basically, the talking, reading, and writing are all integrated together.
TRTW in Action
Tan shared an example of how this works. His intermediate class is learning about revolutions. So, to get them talking, Tan introduced vocabulary words and the concept of revolutions by explaining it in a way the students could relate to. He asked his students, “Tell me a time when you really disagreed with your parents.” Next, he asked them how they show that they’re upset and how do they protest.
Then, students watched videos about revolutions. Watching videos met one of the academic standards needed and replaced reading during this unit. After, Tan provided sentence starters, and they talked more about the topic. Finally after they talked, students wrote their ideas on a shared Google Doc, so he could give them immediate feedback.
By providing feedback right away, it eliminates the potential wait that students would otherwise have if we took papers home to grade. Sometimes, if you have many classes, it can take two weeks to give back papers with feedback. With immediate feedback, you’re able to give students the best chance to learn writing in the target language.
TRTW for Novice Learners
TRTW is not just for intermediate or more advanced learners. As Tan pointed out, TRTW can be used for all learners. Another example Tan gave us in episode 76 is how he used TRTW for novice learners for text on social media usage. He started by reading aloud one sentence. There also should be an image related to the text when you do this. Then, students translated the text into their language.
You want students to translate the words they don’t understand by figuring them out with a partner. Then, they’re going to rewrite it in their own words with their partner. So, that’s the reading, writing, and speaking part. It doesn’t have to always be in a certain order for each level. What I really like is how we can incorporate this to any topic, at any level!
Another concern when using TRTW for beginner learners and partnering them with each other is that they will usually speak in their common language. Tan suggests that when we are talking about a reading or an image, to ask your students to fill a page with ways to describe it. This will be done in their common language. Then, translate those phrases into the target language for them and have students practice those translated phrases. Tan summed it up as, “The more talk you have, the more content you have to write, the more connected ideas you have to produce. So, you must first talk before you’re able to write effectively.”
What About Assessments?
I asked Tan about how he assesses his students’ work. In our discussion, he provided an example of how he models for his students what he wants them to learn and how they practice it in the formative. Afterwards, he tells them to go show him that they’re able to do it with their own writing. By practicing before assessments, students get to mess up many times during low risk activities and right before a high risk one. Hopefully, they get to demonstrate their full understanding of it in their writing.
Where to Start with TRTW
To end our conversation, Tan gave us a great suggestion about where to start with TRTW in your class. The first thing you can do is to take the content and chunk it out. Each chunk is an opportunity to pause, to talk about something. This would occur after they watched a video, listened to a podcast, or did an engaging activity. Also, if there’s an important point during a reading that you want your students to know, you want to stop and point it out. To hear all of the details of our conversation, listen above, on your favorite podcast player, or here. Don’t forget to check out the resources and links below.
About Tan Huynh
Tan Huynh (@tankhuynh ) is a secondary school teacher specializing in English language acquisition, an author, podcaster, and consultant. He has taught students from 5th to 10th grade in domestic public, private, and charter, but the bulk of his experience has been in international schools. He also taught social studies and spends much of his days co-planning and co-teaching. Tan is trained in sheltered instruction, WIDA, culturally-responsive instruction, International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program, and the Collaborative Instructional Cycle. Tan shares his application of research-based strategies on his blog, podcast, and online courses with the hopes of celebrating teachers who answer the @calling to serve multilingual learners. He holds a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction specializing in language acquisition. You can learn more about his work by going to http://TanKHuynh.com .
