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.

Nancy Frey, Ph.D., a Professor at San Diego State University received the 2008 Early Career Achievement Award from the National Reading Conference. Dr. Frey has published in The Reading Teacher, English Journal, Remedial and Special Education, and Educational Leadership. She has co-authored more than fifty books on English Learners (Language Learners in the English Classroom), assessment (Checking for Understanding), writing (Scaffolded Writing Instruction), literacy (Reading for Information in Elementary School) and vocabulary (Learning Words Inside and Out). Dr. Frey teaches a variety of courses on reading instruction and literacy in content areas, classroom management, and supporting students with diverse learning needs. She also was a third grade classroom teacher.