Content-Area Conversations

How to Plan Discussion-Based Lessons for Diverse Language Learners

Teachers across the country are seeking ways to make their multicultural classrooms come alive with student talk about content. Content-Area Conversations: How to Plan Discussion-Based Lessons for Diverse Language Learners is a practical, hands-on guide to creating and managing environments that spur sophisticated levels of student communication, both oral and written. Paying special attention to the needs of English language learners, the authors • Detail research-based steps for designing lessons that spark student talk; • Share real-life classroom scenarios and dialogues that bring theory to life; • Describe easy-to-use assessments for all grade levels; • Provide rubrics, worksheets, sentence frames, and other imaginative tools that encourage academic communication; and • Offer guiding questions to help teachers plan instruction. Teachers at any grade level, in any content area, will find a wide variety of strategies in this book to help students simultaneously learn English and learn in English. Drawing both on decades of research data and on the authors’ real-life experiences as teachers of English language learners, this book is replete with ideas for fostering real academic discourse in your classroom.