Talking and Listening
Listening and speaking—it's the art at the heart of literacy workshops. But there is also a science to how these skills are taught and learned. These resources will show you how to build communication skills in your classroom and school communities.
Latest Content
What’s Good for the Goslings is Good for the Geese: Parallels Between Scaffolding Student Learning and Scaffolding Staff Development
Terry Thompson considers the concept of “scaffolding” for both student learning and professional development.
Language in the Classroom: Using a Recorder as a Teaching Resource
Ruth Shagoury provides tips and strategies for analyzing language in the classroom.
From Hearing to Listening
Jennifer Jones finds there is a world of difference between hearing and genuinely listening to the teachers who come to her for support. She shares some simple questions she uses at the start of professional conversations to ensure she is providing the right kind of response.
Readers’ Theater Revisited
Katie DiCesare becomes reacquainted with an old curricular friend. But in trying reader’s theater again in her primary classroom, she finds ways to streamline the process and foster more independence in students.
Classroom Gifts from Carlos: Helping Young Students Learn Academic Language and Routines
It can be especially difficult for young children from impoverished homes to understand academic language and the demands of school. Andie Cunningham observes the sophisticated ways a preschool teacher helps her students adapt with invitational language.
Coaching Codes
A code of conduct is created to outline the standards and rules of behavior that guide an organization. Effective codes spell out “unspoken rules” as well, so that everyone can be successful. Heather Rader thinks through what a useful code for coaches might look like.
Seven Minutes of Listening
What can we learn by listening closely to children? Plenty — Andie Cunningham shares insights from seven minutes with a young English language learner.
Language Patterns: Reflecting with Transcripts and Wordle
If you are familiar with Wordle, you already know it is a great free tool on the web for creating “word clouds” – visual representations of language. Heather Rader uses Wordle in her literacy coaching to give new and veteran teachers a succinct and powerful visual representation of their teaching language.
Uncovering Reading Behaviors
Teachers value the assessment of student skills and needs that come from close observation in classrooms, but may not know how to focus those observations. Ruth Shagoury documents some of those behaviors that put students on the path of becoming accomplished independent readers in a middle school classroom.
Helping Students Deal with Distractions
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan offer lesson suggestions for helping students self-monitor and deal with distractions during literacy workshops.
Writing Do-Overs: ERPs in the Classroom
ERP. The sound can't help but make you grin. It's Heather Rader's acronym for Explicit Revision for Peers, a series of one-minute kinesthetic writing routines to help students learn how to help each other kindly during writer's workshop.
The Power of Wonder Questions
Andrea Smith writes about how she uses wonder questions in her science curiculum.
You Get What You Ask For: The Art of Debriefing
Heather Rader explores the fine art of asking specific questions during coaching debrief sessions.
Books That Invite Thoughtful Conversation in Grades K-2
Nothing beats an engaging and fun text to spark conversations among young children. Here are some suggestions of terrific read-alouds to get the chatter started in classrooms.
A Coach’s Perspective: Is Sarcasm in Style This Season?
When is sarcasm appropriate in classrooms? Never, yet more is popping up all the time in schools, even from teachers. Here is some advice for dealing with sarcasm.
Sarcasm Is a Useful Teaching Tool — NOT
How does sarcasm hurt students? Heather Rader counts the ways.
There’s Been a Misblunderstanding
We're teachers and we have a tendency to talk too much. Heather Rader explains how she coaches a teacher through the problem.
Getting and Giving Student Feedback
How can we help students be more reflective in our classrooms, giving us the feedback we need to make them better places for learning? Heather Rader has suggestions.
Our Daily Question: Building a Community Through the Data We Collect
If you’re looking for routines that meld community building and learning essential skills, you might enjoy Andrea Smith’s “Our Daily Question” activity with her 3rd and 4th grade students. Classmates share interests and build data gathering and analysis skills together.
Are You Scaffolding or Rescuing?
How much is too much support while conferring? Terry Thompson explores the language of scaffolding and rescuing.
What Goes in the Writer’s Notebook?
Aimee Buckner chats with colleagues about notebooks, and finds herself rethinking what she puts in her notebook (as well as what she requires of students).
Expectations for Grade-Level Team Meetings
Tammy Mulligan and Clare Landrigan share their top tips for improving team meetings.
Conversation Turns: Recordkeeping and Analysis Tool
Suzy Kaback provides a template for helping students note and reflect upon their talk.
Books that Invite Student Participation
Franki Sibberson has suggestions for read-alouds that encourage kids to participate.
Helping Classroom Volunteers Become Better Listeners
Helping volunteers understand the importance of listening to young learners is one of Andie Cunningham’s goals. Here she gives tips for preparing volunteers to confer with children.
Ode to a Sweet Snowy Day for Two
Shirl McPhillips’ poem “Ode to a Sweet Snowy Day for Two” is designed for paired reading. Shirl also gives advice for celebrating poetry as an oral art in classrooms.
The Language of Coaching Part I: Word Choices
If you believe it’s challenging but “possible to be tactful without being inauthentic,” Jan Miller Burkins will guide you around the thorniness of the language of coaching.
The Language of Coaching Part II: The Leading Edge
Jan Miller-Burkins explores the “how” of shifting language so that it is less judgemental in discussions with colleagues.
The Conversations Inspired by the Questions We Ask
Principal Karen Szymusiak shares her reflections and questions that cause her teachers to question their current practice and lead them to consider authenticity in the reading workshop.
More Than Listening Centers: Using Audio Books in Literacy Instruction
Shari Frost sorts through the changing world of audio books, and their resurgence in popularity with smaller, cheaper, and trendier MP3 players. She shares some of the innovative ways literacy coaches and teachers in her network are using audio books.
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