Building Academic Conversation Skills
in Every Lesson
Thinking Skills
Jeff Zwiers
Language & Literacy
Socio-Cultural
Content Learning
Psychological
Handout
Santa Ana Unified School District
August 15, 2013
Jeff Zwiers
http://aldnetwork.org/page/SAUSD
Academic Conversation Placemat
X X X X
Key question,
idea, theme, topic
Ideas for generating conversation topics/prompts:
Ideas for generating conversation topics/prompts:
Formative Assessment and Observation Tools
Symbol
5
4
3
2
1
5
4
3
2
1
Fortifying Complex Output / Fostering Academic Interactions
Clarifying
Complex Language
Modeling
Complex Language
Foundational Practice
Guiding
Language Learning
Academic Conversation Samples
LANGUAGE ARTS
HISTORY
SCIENCE
MATH
Exemplar Lesson Plan
4th Grade Language Arts
Sample Lesson Outline
CCSS, content objectives
Objectives
Connect
Connect
Wide-Angle Reading
Close Reading
Output activities
Oral Output
Whole class Conversation Practice
Conversation Models
Whole Class Conversation
Fishbowl Model with two students
Constructive Conversations
Whole class wrap-up conversation
Written/multimedia activities
Final writing: Paragraph on theme