Academic Conversations Hand out books, Calendar of meetings posted Post it: Why are you here? What caused you to sign up for this course? Clock Hours ELL Sign in Sheets Time Sheets

2. Support Ideas with Examples 3. Build On/Challenge Partner’s Idea Five Essential Skills 1. Elaborate and Clarify 2. Support Ideas with Examples 3. Build On/Challenge Partner’s Idea 4. Paraphrase 5. Synthesize Conversation Points See sentence frames for prompting and responding (handout).

Elaborating provides more important information about the topic. 1. Elaborate and Clarify Elaborating provides more important information about the topic. Clarifying makes the ideas more clear. Listen in and keep the conversation going!

2. Support Ideas with Examples We use examples to strengthen our ideas and arguments. Examples are the evidence. The main types of examples are from: The text Other texts The world One’s own experiences Teach students to use the strongest evidence

3. Build On and Challenge a Partner’s Idea Loose List of Ideas and Details Co-constructed Conversations Ideas in an academic conversation should not be random and unrelated We should connect our ideas to build on or logically challenge our partners Requires a building mindset, not competing one

4. Paraphrase Skills Purpose Keeping track of what we’re hearing Organizing the speaker’s points Describe what we understand in our own words Purpose Partners negotiate meaning by synthesizing and clarifying Listener stays focused on the main topic

5. Synthesize Conversation Points Synthesis Involves remembering, highlighting and fitting together the key ideas into a coherent statement Solidifies the purpose of the conversation Forms the conclusion Partners may agree to disagree