Full Description
How can teachers facilitate meaningful classroom conversations in which students engage in shared inquiry, building on what others have written or said (even to disagree)? Such discussions can have many benefits: students can learn from each other, can bring their out-of-school ways of talking into classroom dialog, can make evidence-based, collaborative arguments, and can begin to communicate like historians, scientists, or other members of disciplinary communities. Yet classroom discussions often fail, teaching students implicitly that they have little to learn from school or each other, that their home-language practices are not welcome, that the loudest voice wins the argument, and that academic discourse is as mystifying and alien as the views of anyone who disagrees with them. Outside the classroom, dialog has never been more important. From climate-change summits or peace talks among neighboring nations, to clashes between rival ethnic groups or political-party mudslinging, to workplace conversations or a traffic stop on a dark street, we must learn to bring our own and others' words into relationship with integrity or suffer the consequences. This book offers concepts, concrete classroom examples, and activities for teachers and students to transform classroom conversations into successful discussions across disciplines, grade levels, and digital platforms.
Contents
Chapter 1 - Two People Talking by Themselves?
Chapter 2 - Transforming Recitations into Dialogic Discussions
Chapter 3 - Organizing Student-led Dialogic Discussions
Chapter 4 - Facilitating Disciplinary Dialogic Discussions
Chapter 5 - Inviting Out-of-school Cultural Practices into Dialogic Discussions
Chapter 6 - Developing Dialogic Discussions Over Time
Chapter 7 - Designing Dialogic Online Discussions
Chapter 8 - Listening to the Silence in Difficult Dialogic Discussions
Appendix A - Key Terms
Appendix B - Classroom Examples
Appendix C - Activities for Promoting Dialogic Discussions
References
About the Author
