Procedure talk

Procedure talk is not primarily about removing or correcting unwanted behavior, although certain administrative procedures might sometimes forget to follow a procedure.
Instead it is intended to provide the guidance that students need to coordinate with each other and with the teacher.

What can make classroom discourse confusing is that two of its functions - content and procedures - often become combined with the third, control talk, in the same remark or interaction. For example, a teacher may ask a content-related question as a form of control talk.

She may, for example, ask, "Jeremy, what did you think of the film we just saw?" The question is apparently about content, but the teacher may also be trying to end Jeremy's daydreaming and to get him back on task - an example of control talk.
Or a teacher may state a rule: "When one person is talking, others need to be listening." The rule is procedural in that it helps to coordinate classroom dialogue, but it may also control inattentive behavior.