Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Few skills are as critical or as rare today as the ability to hear and comprehend what other people are saying. The authors of
Hands Down, Speak Out argue that we need new tools to teach the art of listening and they've put forward a simple yet transformative model for encouraging student conversations that are inclusive, empowering, and rich in content. This classroom guide for grades K-5 is particularly needed in the aftermath of two disrupted school years.
- TEACHING FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS ACROSS SUBJECTS: Hands Down, Speak Out is a practical guide for teaching listening and talking skills that span both literacy and math instruction
- K-5 CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT FOCUSED ON DIALOGUE: Too often, the practice of hand-raising favors the performance of answers by a few students over the construction of meaning involving the whole class. Help all students develop dialogue skills that will deepen their understanding of literacy and mathematics, as well as of themselves, their communities, and the world
- 28 STUDENT-CENTERED MICRO LESSONS: Each of these short, incremental lessons build specific skills during content instruction rather than taking time away from it. Students will be energized by a discourse structure in which their ideas and voices take the lead while teachers focus on listening and facilitating
- NURTURING DISAGREEMENTS: The authors, Kassia and Christy, provide guidance for managing difficult conversations by teaching students to engage in debate and discussion in a way that values listening equally with talking
"When we build talk communities with children, our greatest hope is that what they learn through talking about reading, writing, and math is matched by what they learn about living in the world with others," write Kassia Omohundro Wedekind and Christy Hermann Thompson.
Synopsis
Math coach, Kassia Omohundro Wedekind and literacy coach, Christy Hermann Thompson, have spent years comparing notes on how to build effective classroom communities across the content areas. How, they wondered, can we lay the groundwork for classroom conversations that are less teacher-directed and more conducive to student-to-student dialogue?
Their answers start with Hands-Down Conversations, an innovative discourse structure in which students' ideas and voices take the lead while teachers focus on listening and facilitating. In addition to classrom stories and examples, Christy and Kassia provide 28 micro-lessons designed to help K-5 students develop and excercise their speaking and listening muscles.
Inside Hands Down, Speak Out you'll learn how to:
- Build talk communities that are accessible to everyone, especially those whose voices are often traditionally left out of classroom discourse.
- Analyze classroom conversations in order to plan next steps for developing the classroom talk community
- Plan and facilitate three types of conversations across literacy and math
Christy and Kassia believe that the development of dialogue skills is worth the investment of time not only becuase it has the power to deepen our understanding of literacy and mathematics, but also to deepen our understanding of ourselves, our communities, and the world.
Synopsis
Few skills are as critical or as rare today as the ability to hear and comprehend what other people are saying.