Making Big Talk Exciting

[Guest]

I am trying to raise the standard of writing in my class. To cope with the actual 'writing' side we are starting to use the Russian scaffolding approach with great success, but I am well aware that I need to improve the quality of their talk as well.

I bought the book Talk the Big Talk and have tried a couple of sessions, but I am not feeling excited so I don't think the children are. We have made a super hero display for our super sentences, but I think I am missing something! I would love to go on the course, but our school has no money for that so I am trying my best. Does anyone run this in their school and if so what do they do? How do you structure sessions? I am planning on sending home some talking homework soon, but not sure how it can feed into lessons. In short please help as my kids really need this, but I am at a bit of a loss.

Thanks