E19 - Owning the Conversation: Building Accountable Talk in Multilingual Classrooms
Sally Baer is an educator with more than 22 years of teaching experience whose work has spanned elementary teaching, reading specialization, English language learning, and multilingual education. Her professional journey, including National Board Certification and doctoral study, is grounded in reflective practice and a deep commitment to improving outcomes for multilingual learners and other historically underserved students.
In this episode, Sally explores why structured academic discourse is a high-leverage practice for multilingual learners and how accountable talk supports literacy development across speaking, reading, and writing. The conversation centers on practical routines, asset-based instructional decision making, and the importance of reducing cognitive load so students can deepen comprehension, strengthen academic language, and build confidence as learners.
Key Takeaways:
- Accountable talk moves classroom conversation beyond social language into academic discourse. This structured talk helps multilingual learners develop the language needed for school success over time.
- Strong talk routines can be used across grade levels and content areas. Teachers can adapt the same structure from kindergarten through upper grades.
- Teachers can collect valuable formative data during student discussions. Listening for vocabulary use, sentence complexity, and participation patterns provides rich evidence of growth.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Welcome to Literacy Across Languages!
(03:55) Meet Sally Baer
(06:36) The Transformative Power of National Board Certification
(08:05) Designing Classrooms for Accountable Talk
(11:15) The Role of Structured Academic Discourse in Multilingual Education
(13:06) Defining Accountable Talk
(16:03) Implementing Accountable Talk in the Multilingual Classroom
(20:14) Multilingual Talk Partners
(23:15) Integrating Accountable Talk with Literacy Programs
(26:59) Assessing Accountable Talk with Multilingual Learners
(29:47) Collecting Evidence of Language Use
(31:41) Bridging Literacy Tasks with Accountable Talk
(38:44) Takeaways for Teaching
Episode Resources:
Read Sally’s article on how all teachers can support academic language, academic discourse, and accountable talk through Talk Moves, starting on page 169.
Watch the Edutopia video on using hand signals to support accountable classroom discussion.
Learn more about BICS and CALP and how social and academic language develop over time.
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Keywords: accountable talk, academic discourse, multilingual learners, oral language development, literacy instruction, academic language, CALP, BICS, Jim Cummins, translanguaging, classroom discussion, structured talk routines, sentence stems, oral rehearsal, writing development, reading comprehension, language acquisition, asset-based instruction, multilingual education, MTSS, WIDA, formative assessment, student voice, think pair share, think pair square share, literacy and language integration, teacher scaffolds, academic vocabulary, equity in literacy, multilingual student success, talk moves