Using Our Non-Content Words

In this podcast episode, Kimberly Tanner describes her group’s research to identify non-content language (“instructor talk”), its encouraging or discouraging appearance in classrooms, and its connections to microaggressions, student perceptions, grades, and more.

This instructor talk framework visually contrasts productive and non-productive non-content language.

This webpage is a quick breakdown of instructor-student and student-student talk to support learning.

What kinds of questions can you ask students to encourage thinking out loud and reasoning together? This primer on discourse presents a helpful breakdown of classroom moves by cognitive demand and a handful of common approaches to get students talking and thinking

This short article describes how small verbal affirmations can make a difference in students' disciplinary belonging.

Estrada et al. show us that "microaffirmations can be measured in an academic context and that these experiences have predictive value when they increase students’ integration into their science communities, ultimately resulting in greater intentions to persist."