Collection

Using Our Non-Content Words

The language you use in the classroom shapes classroom climate and guides students in the hard work of learning. These resources introduce non-content "instructor talk" and instructional moves that help students guide their reasoning, engage with each other intellectually, and feel connected.

Instructional Strategies

Updated: October 2024

Audio

Instructor Talk

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.

Teaching for Student Success Media

File

When Is Instructor Talk Productive?

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

SEPAL: The Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory

Website

How Can I Foster Curiosity and Learning in My Classroom? Through Talk!

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

UW Institute for Science + Math Education

File

Interrogative Words: Stimulating Discourse

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

Ambitious Science Teaching

Article

Mathematical Microaffirmations

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

Mathematical Association of America

Article

Small Cues Contribute to Student Persistence

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."

CBE: Life Sciences Education