"For thousands of years people have been using the skills we describe in this book to engage in conversations with others. What isn’t as prevalent, however, is instruction--especially in primary grades―in which we engage students in productive conversations about academic ideas. This book fills that very big need." --Jeff Zwiers & Sara Hamerla
Talk about content mastery . . .
Primary teachers, you won’t want to miss if you’re looking for a single resource to foster purposeful content discussions and high-quality interpersonal engagement, then put Jeff Zwiers and Sara Hamerla’s K-3 Guide to Academic Conversations at the top of your reading list.
Whether your students love to talk or not, all must be equipped with key conversation skills such as active listening, taking turns, posing, clarifying, supporting with examples, and arguing ideas. This ready resource comes packed with every imaginable tool you could need to make academic conversations part of your everyday
Tens of thousands of students in the upper grades have reaped the benefits of academic high-quality face-to-face interactions, increased motivation, stronger collaborative argumentation skills, and better understanding and retention of content. The K-3 Guide to Academic Conversations is that resource for providing your primary students with the same powerful learning opportunities.
I really liked how this book included a lot of word for word conversations between students of this age so you could see the ideas being applied. I also liked all the sample anchor charts. I liked in science and social studies how it listed core skills and how to bring them out through conversation. I wish there would have been one similar for every content area so you could have a quick reference.