ACADEMIC CONVERSATIONS NEW EDUCATOR CONFERENCE March 2017 Agenda - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

ACADEMIC CONVERSATIONS

NEW EDUCATOR CONFERENCE March 2017

Agenda

• Welcome & Introduction
• Norms
• ILC Project
• Academic Discussion
• Implementation

GROUP NORMS

• Be fully present (silence your cell phone)
• Share ideas – be open to divergent points of

view

• Enjoy our time together
• Stay in our “Circle of Influence”

Deborah Cress and Jennifer Cordova

Learning Goal

Participants will understand the importance of academic discussions to promote critical thinking in the classroom.

Success Criteria

• Participants will define academic discussion and understand its

purpose.

• Participant will be able to implement protocols to promote academic

discussion.

Notetaking tool

ACADEMIC CONVERSATIONS

Conversations are exchanges between people who are trying to LEARN from one another and build meaning that didn’t have before. Partners take turns talking, listening and responding to each

• ther’s comments.

Academic conversations are sustained and purposeful conversations about school topics.

Jeff Zwiers & Marie Crawford

Academic Discussion

Academic discussions help students process the information they are learning and respond to ideas and questions presented by teachers and

• ther students, giving them deeper

understanding of the material they are studying.

Jeff Zwiers & Marie Crawford

What is an Academic Discussion?

• Purposeful and sustained conversations about content.
• Anchored in grade-level texts and tasks.
• Students work together to co-construct knowledge and negotiate

meaning.

• Students use protocols that require every student to talk.

Why Academic Discussions?

Helps build..

• Academic vocabulary and grammar
• Critical thinking skills such as persuasion, interpretation,

consideration of multiple perspectives, evaluation, and application

• Literacy skills such as questioning, predicting, connecting to prior

knowledge, and summarizing

• Complex and abstract essential understanding
• An academic classroom environment brimming with respect for
• ther’s ideas, equity of voice, engagement, and mutual support

Jeff Zwiers & Marie Crawford

How to make conversations more academic?

Cultivate students’ ability to…

• elaborate and clarify
• support ideas with examples
• build on and/or challenge a partner’s ideas
• paraphrase
• synthesize conversations

Jeff Zwiers & Marie Crawford

Protocols

• Think-Pair-Share
• Inside/Outside Circle
• Final word
• Fish bowl
• Give one, get one, move on
• Socratic seminar

The Teacher Toolkit

Activity

Teaching Channel video

As you watch the video, consider the following:

• How does Ms. Groves support English Language Learners?
• What are the benefits of using the "Talking Rocks" strategy?
• How do students use talk moves in their discussions?

Give One, Get One, Move On (GoGoMo)

• 1. Write down 3-5 important ideas about academic discussions. Write

each idea on a different sticky-note to give away.

• 2. Get up and mingle.
• 3. When you hear “GIVE ONE,” form pairs and each “gives” one of his
• r her important ideas so each person “gives one” and “gets one.”
• 4. Call out “MOVE ON” and participants mingle again.
• 5. Form new pairs when you hear “GIVE ONE,” and repeat the process.

Closure

• Using yours and “given” ideas on academic discussions, write a

summary.

ACADEMIC DISCUSSION

Getting Started

Getting Started

• Define to students what is a conversation and what is not.

“Conversations is a process of bringing your ideas to the table, sharing them, and shaping them as you listen to the ideas of another person. All partners should walk away with new ideas. Rather than winning, the goal is learning.”

Jeff Zwiers & Marie Crawford

Getting Started

• Teach students acceptable parameters for academic

conversations.

• Establish discussion norms.
• Facilitate a discussion around the following questions:
• How you can tell if someone is or is not listening to you?
• How does it feel when someone interrupts you while you

are speaking?

• What happens when one persona dominates a

conversation?

• How can we respectfully disagree with another’s opinion?
• Reinforce discussion norms by assessing them often.

Jeff Zwiers & Marie Crawford

Productive Partners

Use the 4 Ls:

• Look at your partner.
• Lean toward your partner.
• Lower your voice.
• Listen attentively.

Kinsella

Getting Started

When assessing the adherence to the discussion, use the following checklist: Are students…

• staying focused on the topic?
• are students building on another’s idea?
• supporting ideas with examples or evidence?
• respectfully negotiating an idea when in

disagreement?

• maintaining eye contact and using good

conversational body language?

• choosing the most academic ways to talking?

Jeff Zwiers & Marie Crawford

Socratic Seminar

The “Super Bowl” of Academic Discussion

ACADEMIC DISCUSSION

Protocols

Protocols resources

• Expeditionary Learning

https://www.engageny.org/sites/default/files/resource/attachments/appendix_ protocols_and_resources.pdf

• Discussion protocols from Edutopia

https://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-stw-assessment-discussion- protocols-for-any-subject.pdf

• National School Reform Faculty

http://www.nsrfharmony.org/free-resources/protocols/a-z

Academic Discussion

• Implementation of Strategy
• Protocol

Follow up

Via email, we will contact you in about 2 weeks with follow up questions regarding implementation

• f this strategy.

Reflection

Reflection header

• Session One
• Presenters Deborah O Cress &

Jennifer Cordova