Trauma-Sensitive Schools for the Adolescent Years by Susan E. Craig

Author:Susan E. Craig
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Published: 2017-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Dialogic Teaching

Dialogic teaching uses the power of conversation and dialogue to extend adolescents’ thinking and increase their understanding of things they are learning. Students are introduced to different types of conversations or “talk” that are used in different environments and for different purposes: talk for everyday life, learning talk, teaching talk, and language used for classroom organization. Each type of language adheres to principles that promote collaborative, reciprocal relationships. In trauma-sensitive schools, there is an explanation for the fact that “teacher talk” is often sprinkled with indirect requests that are meant to be obeyed—for example, “Would you please open your book and turn to page 20?” A distinction is made between a “teacher talk” request and similar indirect requests used in everyday talk, which do involve actual choice, as in “Would you like to take a walk with me?” Teens learn that this is not the case when these questions are posed within a classroom context.

Students with early trauma histories are often deprived of language-rich home environments. Their parents spend little time talking to them. They do not engage in conversations about ideas. Time is not devoted to helping teens articulate their opinions or share hopes and dreams for the future.

Dialogic teaching provides new opportunities for youth to explore how language can be used to explore other people’s ideas. This helps students expand their ability to use representational thought, a skill that is critical to the development of both empathy and inferential comprehension (Johnston, 2012).

Another benefit of dialogic teaching is its use of questions that invite students to create new stories about themselves. The teacher’s question “How did you …?” helps teens link their actions to positive outcomes for themselves and others. With enough practice, adolescents are able to rewrite their explanatory narrative.

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