Hands Down, Speak Out: Listening and Talking Across Literacy and Math

by Kassia Omohundro Wedekind, Christy Hermann Thompson

"I sometimes wonder how the world will survive if children do not experience the sort of teaching presented in this book." —Peter Johnston, author of Choice Words and Opening Minds   Math coach, Kassia Omohundro Wedekind, and literacy coach, Christy Hermann Thompson, have spent years comparing notes on how to build effective classroom communities across the content areas. How, they wondered, can we lay the groundwork for classroom conversations that are less teacher-directed and more conducive to student-to-student dialogue?

Their answers start with Hands Down Conversations, an innovative discourse structure in which students’ ideas and voices take the lead while teachers focus on listening and facilitating. In addition to classroom stories and examples, Christy and Kassia provide 28 micro-lessons designed to help K–5 students develop and exercise their speaking and listening muscles. 

Inside Hands Down, Speak Out you’ll learn how

Build talk communities that are accessible to everyone, especially those whose voices are traditionally left out of classroom discourseAnalyze classroom conversations in order to plan next steps for developing the classroom talk community Plan and facilitate three types of conversation across literacy and mathChristy and Kassia believe that the development of dialogue skills is worth the investment of time not only because it has the power to deepen our understanding of literacy and mathematics, but also to deepen our understanding of ourselves, our communities, and the world.

Genres: Education

405 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 31, 2020

About the author

Kassia Omohundro Wedekind spent many wonderful years as a classroom teacher and math coach in Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and now splits her time between being an independent math coach and an editor at Stenhouse Publishers. Her favorite days are spent in classrooms learning from the many ways children talk, listen and negotiate meaning together. Kassia tweets at @kassiaowedekind and is @kassiaowedekind on Instagram.

Reviews

[Karen Kauo · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a 27+ year teaching veteran, I completely agree that student talk and discourse are essential to student success. I found some new ideas in this book, but overall did not care for some of the “Hands Down Conversation” micro lessons. Every class is different, teaching styles are different, and a lot in the book did not resonate with me. Although, for someone new to student talk, this would be a great intro to this classroom strategy.