Describing effective, creative strategies for talking with students in ways that enhance literacy learning, this book offers a window into the classrooms of four exemplary teachers. Principles of productive classroom discussions are illustrated with detailed case examples. The book shows how—and explains why—"real talk" can enhance student engagement, foster critical thinking, promote mastery of literacy concepts, and instill a lasting love of reading. It offers ideas for selecting children's literature and fitting a range of interactive literacy activities into the school day. The authors draw on current knowledge about the connections between oral language and literacy development across the elementary grades.

This book provides a practical methodology that helps education professionals build rapport with students at-promise while creating learning experiences that are relevant - and life-changing. Teaching with transparency, authenticity, creativity, and grit will lead to higher achievement, student engagement, and graduation rates and fewer discipline problems.

The New York Times–bestselling author and world-renown teacher offers no-nonsense wisdom for teachers of all ages There’s no one teachers trust more to give them classroom advice than Rafe Esquith. After more than thirty years on the job, Esquith still puts in the countless classroom hours familiar to every dedicated educator. But where his New York Times bestseller Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire was food for a teacher’s mind, Real Talk for Real Teachers is food for a teacher’s soul. Esquith candidly tackles the three stages of life for the career teacher and offers encouragement to see them through the difficult early years, advice on mid-career classroom building, and novel ideas for longtime educators. With his trademark mix of humor, practicality, and boundless compassion, Esquith proves the perfect companion for teachers who need a quick pick-me-up, a long heart-to-heart, or just a momentary reminder that they’re not alone.

For students at risk, Real Talk means real results! Developed by a nationally-awarded educator and former at-risk student, Real Talk builds rapport with students while creating learning experiences that are relevant…and life-changing. The results are transformed classroom and school environments, engaged students, and higher achievement. The Pedagogy of Real Talk guides readers through every step of implementation. They will Develop an understanding of the substantive education theories that underlie the Real Talk approach Learn the how-to’s for implementing Real Talk with any group of learners Understand key approaches for training teachers in Real Talk methodology Benefit from case studies and lessons learned

This handy guide offers 50 proven best practices for managing today′s classroom, complete with just-in-time tools and relatable teacher-to-teacher anecdotes and advice.

Shana Frazin and Katy Wischow passionately believe in the need to help students develop strong talk skills across the school day, in every subject, to prepare them for their academic lives and lives as active citizens outside of school. Using a unique "cycle" for talk that's similar to the writing process (generating, choosing, developing, acting, and reflecting), they name the predictable things we do most times we engage in a conversation, and show us how we can teach into those parts. Shana and Katy provide practical strategies for teaching four important purposes for talk that exist both in the classroom and in the real world: - talking to build relationships - talking to play with ideas - talking to clarify, analyze, and argue - talking to report. They offer a clear description of each purpose, the "when and how" to teach into those purposes, and what to do when things go awry. Classroom video brings the content to life showing what the talk looks and sounds like in action.

Gain more productive time in each day! Real talk about managing time, reducing stress, and avoiding teacher burnout. Effective time management skills transform teacher confidence and morale, energize and engage students, and improve the learning climate of a classroom—for both you and your students. Weaving wellness research with classroom-tested tips, Real Talk About Time Management helps you improve your classroom learning environment and your mental health. It includes · 35 practical, teacher-proven strategies for saving time and setting personal boundaries · Stories from educators about proactive time management adjustments that worked · “Your Turn” questions that invite personal reflection and strategic planning

"This book will serve as the non-content area, general teaching methods book in the Five To Thrive series, which launches in the Fall of 2021 with Answers To Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Mathematics. It will follow the same general format: a presentation of 5 critical areas of general practice, with 10-15 questions answered in each section. Each question/answer will be featured on a 2-page spread. The five topic areas include: building an affirming classroom community; keeping students at the center; designing effective, fun, and engaging learning for students; making assessments work for you and your students; and "shh! uncovering the answers to what we often don't talk about," which includes work/life balance, asking for support from administrators, navigating difficult parent conversations"--

Conversing with others has given insights to different perspectives, helped build ideas, and solve problems. 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. In Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings authors Jeff Zwiers and Marie Crawford address the challenges teachers face when trying to bring thoughtful, respectful, and focused conversations into the classroom. They identify five core communications skills needed to help students hold productive academic conversation across content areas: Elaborating and Clarifying Supporting Ideas with Evidence Building On and/or Challenging Ideas Paraphrasing Synthesizing This book shows teachers how to weave the cultivation of academic conversation skills and conversations into current teaching approaches. More specifically, it describes how to use conversations to build the following: 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 An academic classroom environment brimming with respect for others' ideas, equity of voice, engagement, and mutual support The ideas in this book stem from many hours of classroom practice, research, and video analysis across grade levels and content areas. Readers will find numerous practical activities for working on each conversation skill, crafting conversation-worthy tasks, and using conversations to teach and assess. Academic Conversations offers an in-depth approach to helping students develop into the future parents, teachers, and leaders who will collaborate to build a better world.

This book is written for all university and college teachers interested in experimenting with discussion methods in their classrooms. Discussion as a Way of Teaching is a book full of ideas, techniques, and usable suggestions on: * How to prepare students and teachers to participate in discussion * How to get discussions started * How to keep discussions going * How to ensure that teachers' and students' voices are kept in some sort of balance It considers the influence of factors of race, class and gender on discussion groups and argues that teachers need to intervene to prevent patterns of inequity present in the wider society automatically reproducing themselves inside the discussion-based classroom. It also grounds the evaluation of discussions in the multiple subjectivities of students' perceptions. An invaluable and helpful resource for university and college teachers who use, or are thinking of using, discussion approaches.