Talk, Read, Talk, Write- A Literacy Routine by Nancy Motley

    I attended a one hour webinar with Nancy Motley, author of Talk, Read, Talk, Write also known as “TRTW”. TRTW is an alternative approach to lecture in the classroom. It gives students the opportunity to build academic language while still learning the content. In summary, it is a way for students to deepen their understanding of the content through reading academic text and conversing on it. Part of this webinar was also learning how to do TRTW virtually with students which is extremely relevant right now. Motley shares how educators can do this in the classroom as well as online. It was important for me to understand each step of TRTW so I will summarize each layer below.

Talk→ A way to engage everyone in the activity. Brief conversations between students and the teacher to activate prior knowledge and to become familiar with the content. 

Read→ Students read an academic text. The key here that Motley stresses is that it is active reading. This means that the students should also be writing in the form of a graphic organizer or asking questions. There are many ways to do this, those are just two examples. 

Talk→ Students converse with each other to discuss what they have read. This is to help them process the reading as well as to prepare them for the next and last step. 

Write→ This is the last step where students write about the reading, sharing their thoughts and understanding. 

    This literacy routine is very flexible according to Motley. Teachers can use this method and change specific parts of it to fit their students and the lesson they are using TRTW for. Motley discussed in the webinar how to differentiate TRTW and I think this was one of the most important takeaways because differentiation in the classroom is crucial for student success. So, how can we differentiate TRTW? Motley tells us that the reading choice can be differentiated to cater to the needs of each student. Some students may have grade level articles and others may have a simplified version of the text. A few other ways to differentiate in bullet points (adopted from Nancy Motley):

• The purpose for reading the text (some students may have different tasks depending on what they need to be successful.

• The writing layer does not need to be the same for each student. The teacher can differentiate that assignment.

    Motley also states that, “Lastly, the structure of this approach ‘frees up’ the teachers time. While students are talking, reading, and writing, the teacher can determine who needs individualized support and provide it” (Motley). Since this is not a way of lecturing, the teacher will not be standing at the front of the class the entire time. They will be able to help students and spend time with those who need the support.

    I think it is also important to discuss how this can be used virtually because of the times we are currently in. The first layer (talk) can be done over facetime between two students or any video platform available. The teacher could also host a group zoom meeting and use the breakout room feature to allow students to have conversations. The second layer (read) can be done by the teacher sending the students a link to the reading for the assignment. The third layer (talk) can be done over a video platform as well. The last layer (write) would mean that the students submit their work via email or an online platform such as google classroom. This way may be a bit more difficult than the classroom but it can still be implemented with minor changes. 

    There are many ways to use TRTW in the classroom and not just an ELA classroom, it can be used for other subject areas as well. TRTW could be used for a mini lesson as well as for a novel that is being read in the class. Since it is flexible, teachers can adapt it to an array of lessons they are teaching. Nancy Motley gave a brief example of using TRTW in a mini lesson and I will share that. She starts off with the talk layer by engaging everyone in conversation on a certain topic. The students then read an article on the chosen topic and find one sentence that they find interesting to bring to a discussion. The third layer (talk #2) is when the students will provide their response to the mentimeter group and have a brief discussion with a peer. The final layer will be a writing task where the students will write a short paragraph discussing the importance of their chosen sentence. An alternative way to carry out a lesson while avoiding direct instruction that will lose the attention of students.

    The webinar was beneficial to me and I will definitely be implementing TRTW in my classroom. There are many ways to do it and it does not have to be for a certain activity, it can be used for whatever the teacher thinks is best in their classroom and that is something I really like about this literacy routine.