Teaching the Core Skills of Listening and Speaking: ASCD

With the Common Core State Standards emphasizing listening and speaking across the curriculum, these long-neglected language arts are regaining a place in schools. For teachers, this means reexamining practices and rethinking expectations. How much do we know about teaching listening and speaking as the complex communication skills they are? How do we teach students to discuss appropriately, integrate and understand the mountains of information they receive, and express themselves clearly and effectively?

In this lively and practical book, 20-year teaching veteran Erik Palmer presents an approach aligned to the six Common Core anchor standards for speaking and listening but focused on preparing students for 21st century communication inside and beyond the classroom. Here, you'll get concrete guidance for teaching and assessing

* Collaborative discussion

* Listening and media literacy

* Questioning and reasoning

* Speech presentation

* Effective multimedia use

* Adapting speech to different content and tasks

With due respect to reading and writing, we do most of our communicating—in the classroom and in life—through listening and speaking. Filled with examples and specific activities targeted to variety of subjects and grade levels, this book is an essential resource for all teachers interested in helping students acquire core skills that cross the content areas and support long-term success.

Erik Palmer is an educational consultant from Denver, Colorado.  He is a frequent presenter at national, regional, and state conferences.  He has given keynotes and led workshops for districts across the US and schools around the world.  Palmer focuses on two topics: improving oral communication (student and adult) and updating instruction.  

He is the author of five books: Well-Spoken: Teaching Speaking to All Students (Stenhouse Publishers, 2011); Digitally Speaking: How to Improve Student Presentations with Technology (Stenhouse Publishers, 2012); Teaching the Core Skills of Listening & Speaking (ASCD, 2014); Researching in a Digital World (ASCD, 2015); and Good Thinking:Teaching Argument, Persuasion, and Reasoning (Stenhouse Publishers, 2016).

Palmer is a program consultant with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt contributing to their Collections and Journeys language arts programs.