Unlocking the Power of Classroom Talk: Teaching Kids to Talk with Clarity and Purpose

by Shana Frazin, Katy Wischow

Overview

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.

https://samplechapters.heinemann.com/unlocking-power-classroom-talk

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780325098715
Publisher:	Heinemann
Publication date:	09/20/2019
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	444,669
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	8 - 13 Years

About the Author

Shana Frazin is a former classroom teacher and currently Co-Director of the TCRWP Classroom Libraries Project and Senior Staff Developer at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. She has led leadership groups on strong readers and higher level comprehension as well as taught institutes on the teaching of reading, writing, and content area. Prior to joining the Project, Shana taught third, fourth, and fifth grades in Pasadena and Los Angeles Unified School districts, and was a faculty member at Pacific Oaks College.

Shana is co-author of Once Upon a Time: Adapting and Writing Fairy Tales; Up-the-Ladder: Information Writing; and Unlocking the Power of Classroom Talk.

Katy Wischow is a staff developer for the Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower. More than a decade ago, Katy found her own way to her very first summer institute, coming as a “lone wolf.” Midweek, she told her principal, “I’m going to need some money” because she decided she absolutely had to have the Units of Study curriculum. Soon she’d transformed her Newark, New Jersey, middle school classroom into a flourishing writing workshop; her students’ passionate response led Katy to enroll in the Literacy Specialist program at Teachers College.

Katy has co-authored the book Unlocking the Power of Classroom Talk, co-written several Units of Study, and has authored the Ida series in the Jump Rope Readers. She is deeply interested in grammar, writing professionally, supporting teachers’ writing lives, and building strong learning cultures in schools and classrooms.

Table of Contents

Online Resources vii

Acknowledgments viii

Part 1 Foundations of Talk 1

Chapter 1 Why Teach Talk? 3

Chapter 2 Talk Is a Cycle, Too 10

Part 2 Purposes for Talk 29

Chapter 3 Talking to Build Relationships 31

Chapter 4 Talking to Play with Ideas 46

Chapter 5 Talking to Clarify, Analyze, and Argue 63

Chapter 6 Talking to Report 85

Part 3 Leveling Up Your Talk 97

Chapter 7 Reciprocity: The Relationship Between Listening and Talking 99

Chapter 8 Making Talk Visible: Celebrating, Going Public, and Assessing 117

Chapter 9 Tackling Talk Trouble 132

Works Cited 145