But far more numerous was the herd of such, who think too little, and who talk too much.

John Dryden

You really don't need a herd of people talking too much to grind a study group, faculty meeting, or class discussion down to a near halt...all it takes is one person who insists on dominating.

This week I rounded up suggestions from Choice Literacy contributors about the best ways to deal with colleagues who talk too much in professional settings. I received almost two dozen ideas, with quite a bit of variety in them. The range of suggestions shows what a big problem peers who talk too much can be in schools - if there was one thing that worked all the time, we'd certainly be using it to rein in the overtalkers. Joan Moser of "The Sisters" may have said it best in sending in hers, "I don't find trying to work with colleagues who dominate discussions is much different than trying to help students on behavior plans - you have to revisit the plan often, because what works at one time or in one context fails in another."

If you're looking for some new ways of evening out the conversations in meetings or study groups, I hope we've got at least one idea that can help. There is also a link to a wonderful free tech tool on the web this week, and more as always. Enjoy!

Brenda Power

Editor, Choice Literacy

www.choiceliteracy.com

Free for All

"You talk too much!" If you're in danger of blurting out those words to a co-worker, our new Literacy Coach Confidential has nearly 20 suggestions for dealing with those colleagues who talk too much in staff meetings and study groups. And if you're not leading the discussions, but suffering through the dominance of a few, this is a good one to print out and put in the mailbox of your literacy coach or principal:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/554.cfm

Wow, is this ever a terrific find. If you ever struggle to open photos or word documents or audio files or videos that are sent to you in the wrong format for your machine, "You Convert It" is the tool for you. This free conversion service on the web can reformat almost any file in over 120 compatible formats. You just upload the file, choose the format you need, and a link to the reformatted file is sent to your email within minutes. I use the "word" to "pdf" tool most often, but can help with everything from formatting a school newsletter to sending new photos to grandma on email:

http://www.youconvertit.com/

If you want to hone your skills in dealing with those "overtalkers" this summer, Jennifer Allen is offering a Choice Literacy Summer Workshop on "Leading Study Groups and Meetings," with everything from sample protocols to videos of assessment and literacy team meetings to analyze. Details on all the summer workshops are at this link:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department22.cfm

For Members Only

In the "lemons to lemonade" department Suzy Kaback provides a dual use talk recordkeeping template for balancing conversation in classrooms. The form keeps avid talkers busy taking note of the conversations of their peers, and the records help Suzy make adjustments to seating arrangements, conversation prompts, and whole-class activities as she analyzes patterns in them. This form can be used with everyone from older elementary students to colleagues in faculty meetings:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/557.cfm

Who doesn't enjoy a classroom tour? Aimee Buckner explains how she arranges books, wall displays, and meeting areas to support the literacy learning of her 4th graders in this six-minute video:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/556.cfm

First-year teacher Erin Ocon finds an old-fashioned way to build rapport with some of her struggling middle school students - she writes letters to them. This brief article would be a good reading for a middle school team meeting or new teacher group:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/558.cfm

Last and surely not least...the Choice Literacy video crew had a great time in Dublin, Ohio last week filming some wonderful classrooms. If you've enjoyed Katie DiCesare's print series on her one-page assessment tool for analyzing the spelling needs and abilities of her 1st graders, you may like a quick peek at one of her guided writing groups in this six-minute video. There are catch-up links provided if you need more background on her spelling assessment and planning system:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/559.cfm

That's all for this week!