TRTW in the Remote Classroom, Part 2: Bringing TRTW to Life Online

by Nancy Motley

I know that we are all in a steep learning curve right now, myself included! Interestingly, I am immersed in learning how to transform the very routine I created into a format suitable for remote learning. I am referring to Talk, Read, Talk, Write, which is a literacy-based routine for teaching just about anything. Luckily for me, there are many teachers who have already blazed this trail. One such teacher is Alma Juarez, who teaches ESL classes at Frisco High School. She generously shared her work with me so that I can share it with you. (She also wanted me to explain that her process is evolving each week as she and her students learn what works best for them.) Before we dive into Alma’s sample lesson, let’s build a little background.

What Is Talk, Read, Talk, Write?

Talk, Read, Talk, Write is a practical routine that can be used to teach any content, from a math vocabulary word to a primary source document in social studies; from a scientific process discussed in chemistry class to Romeo and Juliet in English class. In the chart below, you’ll find a description of each component.

The routine as described above is easy to implement within a classroom setting, and thankfully, it is also easily adaptable for distance learning. What you’ll find in the chart below are specific ways to implement each component in an online setting, along with appropriate supports you can provide for your English learners. 

Hopefully the charts above have helped you understand both the routine itself and how it takes shape in distance learning. Like I mentioned at the beginning, many teachers are experiencing success with this routine, including Alma Juarez, who I introduced last week. She used TRTW with her students all year during class, and she has continued to use it now while her students are learning at home. 

She begins each week with a video in which she explains the assignments and shows students how to access everything. This video is beneficial because it is both a visual aid and a permanent record. Students can go back to it as many times as they need to for information or reinforcement. Here is a link to the video that corresponds with one of her recent lessons.

For each lesson, Alma also creates a hyperdoc with a “week at a glance.” (I just learned the term “hyperdoc,” which refers to a Google doc that has hyperlinks embedded in it.) The idea is that students have one place to go for any given class. Below is a weekly lesson plan for her high school ESL class. I don’t imagine very many of us will be using this exact plan, but I’ve included it to highlight some features that we can all use in our lessons. While these features are good for all students who are learning remotely, they are critical to the success of our English learners.

The good news about the features highlighted above is that we can use them in any online lesson, TRTW or otherwise. I hope you make a few adjustments to your work based on these features.

There are so many invaluable lessons and “aha! moments” applicable to remote learning here. I’d like to wrap up with a big THANK YOU! I am so grateful to Alma and her team for sharing their path with me. We can all learn so much from how they collaborate together (see the precursor to this post in Part 1), and from how they are helping their English learners grow and collaborate more during distance learning.