Getting Beyond Blank Stares: Help Students Negotiate Conversations About Books

We have all sat and watched as students stared at each other blankly. Or we have walked over to a group and thought they were talking about their books only to hear about what they wanted for their birthdays. Even though there are many possible pitfalls and challenges to giving students time to talk about their reading, it is totally worth it.

Students benefit from conversations in many ways.

We can support student conversations by teaching them how to negotiate. Here are a few ideas for teaching student to do this when reading nonfiction.

Take a peek into one of our conversations about conversation in this video.

For many more lesson ideas read Chapter 4 of What Do I Teach Readers Tomorrow?