Academic Conversations

Where would we be without conversation? Throughout history, conversations have allowed us to see different perspectives, build ideas, and solve problems. Conversations, particularly 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. [The] authors ... have identified five core communication skills to help students hold productive academic conversations across content areas. These skills are: elaborating and clarifying, supporting ideas with evidence, building on and/or challenging ideas, paraphrasing and synthesizing. This books shows teachers how to weave the cultivation of academic conversation skills and conversations into current teaching approaches.