Getting ready to have conversations (c) Susan Ranney  Get up and find 3 people to have conversations with. Make note of who will be your partner 1, partner 2 and partner 3. Be sure you each have three different partners.

What associations do you have with academic language? (c) Susan Ranney

Give one/Get one and interview grids (c) Susan Ranney Directions:  Write some thoughts about the questions on academic conversations under “Your ideas”. Then stand up and talk to partner 1. After each exchanges ideas, write some additional points that you got from each other. Do this with partner 2 as well. Pause and write key points from your conversations in the last box. Share your final, polished version with partner 3.

Prompts for give one/get one (c) Susan Ranney  What is academic conversation and who needs it?  When do you personally engage in academic conversations?  When do your students need to engage in them?  Where do you see your students' needs in this area?  What contexts outside of school might call for skills that are the same as used in academic conversations?

Reflection (c) Susan Ranney  Share some ideas from your conversations: What do you think the group has consensus on?  Did your ideas grow through conversation? Was your last version different from your first version?

A definition of academic language (c) Susan Ranney “..academic language is the set of words, grammar, and organizational strategies used to describe complex ideas, higher order thinking processes, and abstract concepts.” (Zwiers, J. (2008). Building academic language, p. 20)

What makes a good academic conversation? (c) Susan Ranney

Jeff Zwiers introduces conversation skills (c) Susan Ranney  conversation-skills-ells-ousd conversation-skills-ells-ousd 

(c) Susan Ranney

Let’s practice some constructive conversation skills. (c) Susan Ranney  Start with this idea and think about ways to create, clarify, fortify and evaluate/compare/negotiate:  “Citizenship is more than an individual exchange of freedoms for rights; it is also membership in a body politic, a nation, and a community. To be deemed fair, a system must offer its citizens equal opportunities for public recognition, and groups cannot systematically suffer from misrecognition in the form of stereotype and stigma.” ― Melissa V. Harris-Perry, Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America Melissa V. Harris-PerrySister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America

Now let’s practice a group discussion (c) Susan Ranney  Fishbowl discussion – Inner circle – seated and talking, outer circle-standing and observing what they say and what types of conversational moves they use. Outer circle can tap on someone’s shoulder to take their place in the discussion.  Prompt: What does it mean to be a citizen of the U.S.? What do you think the requirements should be? How can we best prepare new immigrants to become active U.S. citizens?  Try to use constructive conversational skills!

Linking conversational functions and language (c) Susan Ranney  Sample sentence frames from Kate Kinsella:  Persuading:  Based on the evidence presented so far, I believe that….  Although some people claim that……, opponents argue that….  The advantages of ……outweigh the disadvantages of……insofar as…….

Kinsella’s frames for discussions (samples) (c) Susan Ranney Acknowledging ideas DisagreeingHolding the floor My idea is similar to…. I see it another way.As I was saying…… I agree with___ that…. I don’t agree with you because…… If I could finish my thought…

Write your own sentence frames (c) Susan Ranney  With a partner, write some sentence frames or sentence starters that you might use in an academic conversation for one or more of these purposes:  Summarize  Classify  Analyze  Predict  Offer a suggestion  Ask for clarification  Report a group’s idea

Practice some discourse connectors with a pro- con (c) Susan Ranney Think of arguments for and against an idea:  Examples:  All children should have pets.  Supersized drinks should be banned.  Cell phones should be banned from school.  Computers have made our lives better.

Pro-Con - language supports (Zwiers, O’Hara, Pritchard, 2014, p. 134) (c) Susan Ranney Transitions  However  On the other hand  Then again Frames  One advantage is…..  For example…..  Another positive…..is….because  A negative aspect of……is ……..because…..  In spite of the positives of……..

Take a minute to reflect (c) Susan Ranney  Questions?  Comments?  Applications?

Strategic interaction (c) Susan Ranney  A language teaching technique from the 1980s  Useful for practice in negotiating meaning, using different communication strategies, and working through conflicts  Supports language learners through group work

Distinct characteristics of the role play in a scenario  The role play is open-ended: groups start with an agenda, not a complete script.  A communication problem is built in.  When players need help, they can return to their groups and get ideas.  The players develop the role play as they go and try to resolve the conflict in the scenario.

Stages of Strategic Interaction  Planning – prepare the scenarios  Rehearsal - students work in two groups and generate language to use in the role play  Performance – representatives of each group perform the role play  Debriefing – teacher gets students to reflect on the role play and provides explanations of needed language (grammar, pronunciation, etc.)

Inside/Outside Circles (c) Susan Ranney  Prompt: Think about your students’ needs related to academic conversations and what you want to address or use in your teaching. Why is it important? How will you do it?  Inside/outside circles: The whole group forms two concentric circles. Partners in the outer circle face partners in the inner circle. Share ideas with your partner until you hear the signal to move and then take steps in opposite directions from your partner.

Enjoy your academic conversations! (c) Susan Ranney  Slides will be posted for the conference.  My contact: