One of the most common struggles we face as teachers is connecting with our students. How can we connect content to our students if we don't know them, their perspectives, or their interests? How do we connect with students who think we can't understand their lives or experiences and who see formal education as a challenge? A Real Talk dialogue is "an instructor-led discussion based on a series of broad, engaging, universal themes to motivate student-oriented outcomes" (Hernandez, 2015, p. 18). Real Talks authentically, yet systematically, establish genuine connections between students and educators to build trust and enhance learning through positive relationships.
Terministic Screens and Universal Themes
One way to better understand your students is to understand their terministic screens. Kenneth Burke (1985) explains a person's terministic screen as the way in which they view the world. Each individual's views build their perspectives, which are constructed by their group memberships (e.g., race, gender, social status, sexuality, and education) and by their ascribed or achieved status within society. It allows you to get a glimpse of how people view the world around them (Rockler, 2002). The ways an individual speaks, uses vocabulary, and filters and understands all contribute to their terministic screen.
As a teacher, it is difficult to include all terministic screens at all times. However, we must connect with all students. Using Real Talk dialogue can expedite getting to know your students, even when you may not fully understand each student's terministic screen. Real Talk discussions allow you to learn about your student's lives by connecting with a universal theme that you have both experienced. This dialogue provides a reciprocal discussion between teachers and students, affording valuable learning about student's lives, experiences, feelings, and reactions. Real Talk offers an opportunity to relate to your students and plan lessons and lectures on topics that are relevant and pertinent to them.
Real Talk discussions are instructor-led and based on broad, engaging, universal themes to motivate student-oriented outcomes. So, what is a universal theme? A universal theme can be anything linked to experiences and emotions, such as frustration, happiness, anger, excitement, disappointment, love, inferiority, and hope. The options are endless. The trick with universal themes and Real Talk is to connect whatever theme that you select to an experience of your own, or of someone close to you. This connection allows you to show authenticity to your students and begin to show your students a "human" side.
When Can I Use Real Talk?
Note that Real Talk is not merely sharing about yourself to invoke student responses. Each Real Talk is highly structured, well thought out, practiced, and authentically delivered. Real Talk is intentional, should not be overused, and can last anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes.
Real Talks have two main purposes: to focus on connections with students and to lead into a curricular component of your class. You can integrate these throughout each semester as you see fit; however, do not overuse Real Talks because they will lose their impact. Effective placement of Real Talks is also essential. Establish a strategy to determine placement as you are developing and getting more comfortable with Real Talks. For example, one strategic placement of Real Talks is the first day of class. This timing will help you break traditional norms of first day of class activities. The review of curriculum and syllabus contents can take place any time.
Establishing connections with your students on day one through Real Talk could help students better absorb class and curricular expectations at a later time. Other strategic placements include midsemester or any time you feel a lull in motivation or momentum; before the introduction of a difficult concept, to lessen fears or barriers and increase student receptiveness; or before finals or towards the end of the semester.
Eight Steps to Get Started
Follow these steps to get started using Real Talks as a tool to connect with your students.
Step 1: Identify the placement and purpose of the Real Talk you want to use: On the first day of class to build connections with students, a time during the semester to build morale or motivation with students, or to introduce a new or difficult concept. Next, think of a universal theme that you can authentically connect to your personal experience or that of someone you know. You can also select a universal theme related to a curricular concept that you would like to introduce. Think about your students' terministic screens (if already known) to brainstorm universal themes that will connect to their experiences or interests (e.g., loyalty, happiness, frustration, jealousy, nervousness, fairness). The goal is to use the Real Talk dialogue to build connections with your students with you or with the content.
Step 2: Establish a hook (rhetorical question to be used at the beginning of your Real Talk) and connecter question (to transition the dialogue to your students after you share your experience). The hook and connecter questions can be similar or even identical. However, what differs is where the teacher takes the talk. When using a Real Talk to introduce a concept or to break down student barriers toward a difficult subject or concept, think broadly about the shared experience and universal theme. The selected universal theme could either relate directly to the selected content or not. The critical transition to the content will come after the connecter question invokes dialogue with students. The teacher begins with a hook question, shares an experience and universal theme, and then transitions to dialogue with students using a connecter question. After student sharing, the teacher then clarifies the connections between the content and the shared experience.
Examples of hook questions: Have you ever been so painfully embarrassed that it leads to feeling inferior? Have you ever been truly surprised? Have you ever felt like someone puts you down or demeans you? Have you ever felt betrayed? Have you ever felt judged by people who don't know you?Examples of connecter questions: Has anyone in class or someone you know ever felt rejection like I did? Have you or someone you know ever felt disappointed by someone you trust? Have you or anyone you know ever laughed so hard you cried?
Step 3: Create and practice your Real Talk discussion outside of class. Do not mistake this step as preparation for a presentation or speech. The goal is to engage the students in a natural, authentic, and logical manner. Practice will also help avoid any emotional overspill that emotional themes can conjure within us.
Step 4: Adjust your demeanor during your Real Talk to allow students to see a balance of seriousness and emotional charge: you want to shift the tone of emotions and environment of the class. Do this by beginning with a pointed leading question that is both serious and relatable.
Step 5: Begin your Real Talk broadly, like at the top of a funnel. Define or introduce your universal theme through your hook so it is natural, and then dive in to your experience or connecting story. Feel free to define your selected universal theme if you think your students might not fully understand its meaning (e.g., has anyone in this class ever felt that someone you care about demeaned you? For example, did someone you trust put you down or try to make you feel bad about yourself?)
Step 6: Ask your students if they or someone they know has experienced this theme. Invite a few students to share their experiences with the theme by deploying the connecters you developed in Step 2. Do not lose control of this discussion. This dialogue is not intended to be a long, drawn-out session for every student to share every experience. Rather, it is an opportunity for a deeper discussion where the students who choose to share experiences help build connections within the class.
Step 7: Build connections between the various stories. Take the time to show students that, each individual has experienced the universal theme in some unique way.
Step 8: End the Real Talk by connecting the universal theme back to the content focus of your class or transitioning to your next topic or activity. Regardless of the class activity after the Real Talk, end the Real Talk on a positive note. (For example, one Real Talk on powerlessness ended by telling students that this government class assists them in gathering power in society, in their community, and in relationships with their peers.)