Where would we be without conversation? Throughout history, conversations have
allowed us to see different perspectives, build ideas, and solve problems.
Conversations, particularly those referred to in this book as academic
conversations, push students to think and learn in lasting ways. Academic
conversations are back-and-forth dialogues in which students focus on a topic
and explore it by building, challenging, and negotiating relevant ideas.
Unfortunately, academic conversations are rare in many classrooms. Talk is often
dominated by the teacher and a few students, or it does not advance beyond short
responses to the teacher's questions. Even certain teaching approaches and
curriculum programs neglect to train students how to maintain a focused,
respectful, and thoughtful conversation.
To address these challenges, authors Jeff Zwiers and Marie Crawford have
identified five core communication skills to help students hold productive
academic conversations across content areas. These skills include: elaborating
and clarifying, supporting ideas with evidence, building on and/or challenging
ideas, paraphrasing, and synthesizing. This book shows teachers how to weave the
cultivation of academic conversation skills and conversations into current
teaching approaches. More specifically, it describes how to use conversations to
build the following:
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Academic vocabulary and grammar
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Critical thinking skills such as persuasion, interpretation, consideration
of multiple perspectives, evaluation, and application
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Literacy skills such as questioning, predicting, connecting to prior
knowledge, and summarizing
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Complex and abstract essential understandings in content areas such as
adaptation, human nature, bias, conservation of mass, energy, gravity,
irony, democracy, greed, and more
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An academic classroom environment brimming with respect for others' ideas,
equity of voice, engagement, and mutual support
The ideas in this book stem from many hours of classroom practice, research, and
video analysis across grade levels and content areas. Readers will find numerous
practical activities for working on each conversation skill, crafting
conversation-worthy tasks, and using conversations to teach and assess.Academic
Conversations offers an in-depth
approach to helping students develop into the future parents, teachers, and
leaders who will collaborate to build a better world.