Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More: The Chatterbox EduProtocol

The Chatterbox EduProtocol is intended for math instruction but could work with any subject area to help students master vocabulary and concepts. The purpose of this gamified EduProtocol is to encourage students to discuss keywords, concepts, or operations in a fun and agile environment. Give students multiple chances for making sense of the many big ideas in mathematics while providing an exciting, interactive process for all to enjoy. Modeled after the 1960s TV show Password, the concept for this protocol was originally published in Building Academic Vocabulary by Robert Marzano and Debra Pickering.

Academic Goals

• Students discuss and practice using keywords and vocabulary in a fun, engaging way.
• Students grapple with how mathematical ideas relate.
• Embedded review as directed by the teacher or needed by students

Teacher Big Ideas

• Students interact with keywords or concepts through preview, review, or formative assessment.
• Students engage in utilizing language to make sense of mathematics.
• Students consider relationships between concepts.

Description

Several words under a common category are chosen and displayed on a slide in front of the room. In pairs, students explain the concept or topic displayed. One partner has their back to the slide, leaving the view and the explanation to the other partner. The student with their back to the slide listens and tries to guess what is on the slide from their partner's explanation and description. This listening/talking partnership is designed to develop a concept, visualization skills, and listening skills. After one minute, both partners view the words and discuss them. The whole class then tries to figure out the category.

Prepare for the Activity

1. Utilizing a slide deck template, determine what key ideas are most important for utilizing Chatterbox. Key ideas, pictures, or concepts could be a single word, word phrases, or images grouped in a meaningful way. Groups of keywords should be placed as a list on a single slide, with one theme or domain as a commonality between all selected words or ideas, images, or word phrases.
2. After preparing each slide as described above, scaffold the intentional reveal of the items to develop student understanding of the central concept.
3. The timer on each slide should be set for one minute.
4. Ensure a balance of content slides and fun slides. Also, ensure content varies so that all players have opportunities to access the material. This balance provides that necessary brain break between heavy content and will pique students' interest in what will be on the next slide. The success of this protocol hinges on a proper balance and a random mix of both fun slides and content slides.
5. After completing each round, highlight the two to four slides per round of seven slides you would like to review. Further discussion is a powerful opportunity to strengthen connections and tie into the common category showcased on the individual slides.

Instructions

1. While pairs of students will be facing each other, one partner will have their back to the display screen and the other will be facing the display screen.
2. The student facing the screen may use any words to describe the word, phrase, or picture, but cannot say the word itself, any part of the word, or things like, "it rhymes with...", "it sounds like...", "it starts with the letter...", etc. The student trying to guess may skip words or phrases during the one-minute episode.
3. Keeping score is up to the teacher and students to decide, or simply by asking how many were able to get so many words, etc. The goal is to have positive interactions and the opportunity for conversation that will flow from this experience.
4. Once the one minute has elapsed, have partners discuss.
5. The whole class discusses the possible category to which the descriptors on the page connect before the teacher reveals the answer.
6. As a bonus, the teacher may highlight two to four of the categories and words to have students review and discuss at the end of the seven rounds. While seven rounds are not a required number of rounds, it tends to be the "just right" amount of time to keep the experience moving forward.

Key Points to Remember

• If the balance isn't maintained between content and fun slides, the learning and momentum will come to a grinding halt. Keep in mind that if seven rounds are the typical amount, three or four slides should be universally accessible to the entire audience.
• To cover more content, institute two or three iterations of the seven rounds over a couple of days. Students won't mind because they are interacting positively with their construction of learning.
• Be comfortable with students describing words or phrases using non-academic language, or completely unrelated descriptions; this makes the learning sticky and is a powerful connection to bring between the teacher and student.

Adaptations for Primary Students

• Use familiar images and graphics for students to describe. Consider using simple math problems.
• Keep time shorter, say twenty seconds.
• Build up to longer times as the year progresses.
• Provide scaffolds for language and class discussion as needed, such as sentence frames, to get students started. Sentence frames are also beneficial for English language learners.

Check out the video explanation below:

See the slide deck below for detailed instructions and feel free to make a copy of the template.