Constructive Classroom Conversations: Improving Student-to-Student Interactions

ew College- and Career-Ready standards emphasize the importance of speaking, listening, and conversing not only as a means for learning, but also as a valuable goal of learning. Starting October 3, Professor Kenji Hakuta and Drs. Sara Rutherford-Quach and Jeff Zwiers at Stanford Graduate School of Education once again will offer an online professional development course that focuses on student conversations, Constructive Classroom Conversations: Improving Student-to-Student Interactions. The overall purpose of this course is help teachers prepare students, and particularly language learners, to have in-depth conversations about content area concepts and topics. This course consists of five online sessions, with two or three weeks devoted to each session. Each session includes expert video screencasts, classroom video clips, readings and resources, and assignments that will prompt participants to strengthen the curricular foundations of communication. Participants are free to complete the session tasks at their own pace as long as they finish them within the allotted time.