@ALBULS :Andrea: I just finished viewing a Video from tha amazing Doug Fisher who actually addresses this issue (though in a literacy setting in a publich school). He is adament that if students are not interacting during learning, we are not doing our job as educators. It is our jobs as educators at all levels to create engagement with students and part of that engagement is to create opportunities for students to interact. There are many ways to do this. When I do PD work in schools throughout the U.S., I design units and activitiies that focus on students working in pairs, groups or cooperative learning based projects. When you do this with students, you will find your students engaged and highly focused on the lessons you are delivering. If you need any references on this, let me know.
We want students talking, but we want to structure our lessons so that this communication is productive and helps students learn the material and concepts we are trying to teach. This is something I strongly emphasize and model for my Graduate Students in Education.
