Hello colleagues, Academic conversations in class can sometimes be pretty short and lacking in depth. To have rich and deeply meaningful academic conversations around the content we are teaching requires that we teachers first create a safe space for these conversations to happen. While having a space that is safe for taking risks is essential, it may also be helpful to provide students with scaffolding to get started. Stanford University professor, Jeff Zwiers, has been promoting "constructive conversations" for many years. Check out the "constructive conversation skills poster" on his website.
This poster focuses on prompt starters and response starters that support students to achieve the Speaking and Listening Standards: i.e., students are provided with the academic language needed to "build on each others' ideas" by creating, clarifying, evaluating, comparing, and fortifying and supporting concepts from the texts they are studying.
What I love about this tool is that it offers students support for trying out academic language that may be new to them. For example, to ask a classmate to clarify, a student might say, "Can you elaborate on that?" When a student disagrees, she might say, "That's a valid point, however ...." It's definitely music to a teacher's ears to hear learners actively using this kind of academic language during student-to-student classroom interactions!
What are your thoughts about the possibilities of using a resource such as this. You are invited to offer your ideas for how this tool could be used to support learners to build their speaking and listening skills in pursuit of the standards.
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, College and Career Standards CoP