The more we as teachers talk, the less students do. Incorporating quick moments for student speech is easier than you think. Check out these quick and easy speaking activities to improve STUDENT TALK in your classroom.

1. Musical Shares

This activity is ideal for adding movement into your space! Students will stand up and while the music plays they move around the room. When the music stops, they share with whoever they are standing next to. Play tunes your students love or play totally cringe music that will annoy the heck out of them! 😂

You can have students pair up and share or have them in small groups of three or four to share. Whether they’re sharing their response to a question, an original poem or piece of writing, or practicing language, this speaking activity is one that can be added to ANY content area and any classroom.

2. Post-It Preview

Some students need some additional think time before sharing their ideas. This activity has students writing down their answer on a post-it note before they’re required to share with the room.

This approach is a great way to support your English language learners, more timid students in your space, and students who need more processing time.

Giving them time to prepare and preview their answers will make them more likely to share with the whole group. This will certainly increase student talk time!

3. Four Corners

Split your response options into four categories. Select each corner of the room for one of the categorical responses and have students move to the corner that fits their opinion or viewpoint best.

Once they get to their designated corner, they share with the other students there. In order to improve the quality of their sharing, post some sentence starters or focus vocabulary words in the space to support students in their discussion. Not only is this crucial for English language learners, but it will improve the rigor and academic nature of the discussion for ALL students in the space.

4. Whip Around

A simple way to get everyone sharing, is this whip around method. Start at one place in the room and move from one student to the next. The key to success here is prior to starting the whip around have students review the materials your working on and pick a specific thing they will share. Providing this one to two minutes to designate what they’re sharing will ensure everyone is prepared.

If students read an article, they can circle or highlight a sentence that stuck out to them. If they wrote a short response, they could share an important detail. If they created a list, they can circle one or two items on the list to share.

5. Two Heads

Have students pair up to create a response together! This one is called “two heads” because two heads are better than one! This is a fantastic way to allow students to work with their friends or to create mixed ability groups that can support learners in different ways.

Once the pair creates their response together, you can have them find another pair in the room to share it with. This pairing up can happen a couple of times in just a few minutes. Have each partner take turns sharing with their new “two-headed” group members.

Student talk time happens in a pair and in a small group format. The repetition of this will build their confidence and help them say their response in various ways!

6. Pick Sticks & Phone a Friend

Picking sticks is a pretty classic method for calling on students to provide talk time. Combine it with a student’s ability to “phone a friend” to create more support for the students in your space.

If a student’s stick is chosen and they want to ask for support, they can choose another student in the room to help them out. The student talk here can happen both with the class and between the two students working together to create a response!

7. Student Teacher

Have students step into the role of instructor. You can approach this in several ways. You can simply have a student talk through the directions for the class. You could give instructions and have students paraphrase individual pieces of the instructions. You could even provide some silent time for students to review the instructions and the assignment on their own, then ask for some volunteers to discuss their understanding.

Make this fun by allowing them to “act like the teacher.” Let them stand at the podium! Give them the pointer stick or laser pointer to “present” the information on the screen. Guide them in putting on a “professional air” when giving the instruction. This could be a really fun way to role play and give students an opportunity to take on a facilitator role in the room. You could even make this a routine part of your class by rotating students through this role each week or month!

Make Student Talk Time an EASY ADD!

Student talk time is one of the most influential factors that positively impacts student learning. While as teachers we may often have the best of intentions, sometimes we can get in our own way!

Slipping in quick and easy student talk activities like these is a fool-proof way of boosting student learning and building classroom community all at the same time!