Thought of the Day: Friday, August 29th, 2014

Walk & talks keeps students moving and engaged

I wanted to devote today's blog post to explaining what a walk & talk is and how useful I have found this strategy to be in my PE classes. I started up the idea of walk & talks a couple of years back, but didn't really use it all of the time. 

Nowadays, I use walk & talks consistently in my classes as it is a great way to keep kids moving while at the same time discussing and sharing answers that they have to the important questions that I ask in class. I usually have these types of questions planned ahead of time and know when I am going to ask them in class. These driving questions always connect to the student learning outcomes in the units being explored in PE. 

The main idea behind the walk & talk sessions is that the students are never sitting on the floor in front of me to have a discussion. During the class, I will signal for them to come back to wherever I am in the gym. Most of the time, I will be standing in front of one of the visuals that I have created for the unit. I usually have the driving question posted on this visual. At this point, I tell them to partner up in small groups (usually 2 or 3). I allow students to use their own language when discussing and sharing their answers in their group. I have many different nationalities and cultures within my classes, so for example, I may have a small group of Germans or Koreans who want to team up to have a discussion. I have no problem whatsoever with this.

I send the groups off for their walk & talk which usually lasts between 3-4 minutes. Enough time to play one quick song while they circle around the gym talking. Once the time is up, the students will gather back and share their answers with the whole class. I encourage the students to build upon each other's ideas during these discussions. I always record their answers in my journal then use their thoughts, ideas, and answers to create a visual to show the students' learning. 

Keeping kids moving, thinking, discussing, and sharing is a very important part of our learning journey together in my physical education program. If you have never done a walk & talk with your students, try it out. They are awesome!!! 

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