Sea of Talk

"People who know everything are silent; people who know nothing are silent. In between, there is talk. Literacy floats on a sea of talk."  This quote comes from a guy by the name of James Britton.  He said it (or wrote it) in 1970.  This quote can be found on page 4 in the Ontario "Think Literacy" document (along with a bunch of other really good stuff by the way).
Let me point a couple of things out that I find funny.
1.  The quote is older than me.  I didn't become aware of it until a literacy camp guest speaker said it this summer.
2.  I didn't begin to understand it (though I remembered it clearly enough) until this school year.  Now I get it.

"Talk is the foundation for thought and understanding, and the key to literacy learning. Research demonstrates that powerful meta-cognitive strategies can be taught to help students self-monitor their comprehension when reading print and digital texts."  This is the abstract for a book by Kathy Mills.  It is part of what I believe the quote by Britton to be talking about.

I know I've mentioned it in earlier posts and I've talked about it a few times with some of you, but I wanted to put it down here, if only to document it.  I really feel like I am getting to the heart of matters concerning student learning and achievement and becoming better at what I do, not only in practice but in purpose.  The reason for this is the number of small talks I am fortunate enough to have with other people that are caring and passionate about education.  Every time I get together with just 2 or 3 other teachers and we engage in constructive talk or debate, somewhere along the line, after bouncing ideas off of one another, a collective light bulb goes on.  It is inspiring.  It happened to me twice today and I had to do two things as a result.  You are reading one of them now... the other was the nap I had to take.  I was exhausted!

I received a couple of emails that spoke to the idea I am expressing here.

"I wish we could engage in a big 'think tank' from time to time... I bet that is what people like Marzano and Reeves do to move their thinking forward.... get like minded people together (like a kind of retreat) to sit, talk, and think."

and "Maybe we should do away with formal meetings and have the informal meetings more often.  That's where the progress seems to happen."

Isn't that just incredible!  I don't think there is anything more I can say on the topic right now except that if you aren't involving yourself in professional dialogue, you are really missing out!

I promise, next entry will have more humour/wit and less worky blechness.