RCS ESL Academic Discourse Chat by Kristina Danko https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl Come one come all! Chat about our thoughts and reflections of practices and strategies to encourage academic discourse in the classroom. Our goal as ESL teachers is to help support EL students in both English language development and content-area classrooms. en-us 2020-12-17 18:23:49 UTC 2021-04-28 18:56:14 UTC hello@padlet.com January Chat: Share your experience. Have a conversation about the same topic with three different people. Compare the ideas that emerge. Compare the skills and moves that deepened or moved the conversation along. Share a summary of the conservations and which skills were used. dankok https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1028892204
Pre-requisite Skills
Focused Listening-Create an Idea-Clarifying-Supporting Ideas-Evaluate and Comparing-Building on Ideas 
]]> 2020-12-17 18:26:41 UTC https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1028892204 February Chat: Of the 5 core conversation skills below, which do you feel would be the easiest and hardest for students to utilize and why. Comment on at least one post by building on their idea. *Try not to challenge. dankok https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1028901103 Core Conversation Skills
Elaborate and Clarify, Support Ideas with 
Examples, Build On/Challenge Ideas,
Paraphrase, Synthesize Conversation Points
]]> 2020-12-17 18:28:46 UTC https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1028901103 January Chat (Chris Tennyson) https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1080942702 This summary is a conversation that took place among 2 students and 2 faculty memebers. It was an organic converstaion that revolved around the recent events at the Capitol and was initiated by the students, two advanced ELs. The converstation began as a comparison of what happened at the Capitol to similar events in the US.  Everyone partipicated in focused listening. The teachers supported to help the students clarify their ideas as needed. The two students were exceptional at extending the concepts and building on others prior points. While the two teachers spent more time listening, they were able to compare and build as well with their knowledge of history and politics. The students extend the concepts to include events in their home countries. While there may have been some undercurrents of evaluation, there were no obvious words used to show this. The two students both used transition words to build upon their











]]> 2021-01-12 22:16:32 UTC https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1080942702 February Chat kwrenhaze https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1246381546 I think that the skills of build on/challenge ideas would be the easiest because you can use your own opinions and experiences.
I think that the skill of paraphrasing would be the hardest because you must understand the other person's point completely in order to restate it.]]> 2021-02-26 18:04:19 UTC https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1246381546 February Chat smsteach12 https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1254951303 I find it hard to choose just one because each one has its challenges, but I think building on and challenging ideas would be a difficult one. Some girls are not programmed to challenge boys, or any student may not feel confident when speaking their opinions in opposition to a group.
The easiest one would be support ideas with examples as we teach students how to draw ideas from text to support understanding. This skill transfers to the idea of finding examples to support a point. ]]> 2021-03-01 19:00:29 UTC https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1254951303 January Chat duffv https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1460260267 Myself and three of my coworkers had a conversation about whether one should get vaccinated or not.  Most of us were pretty good at focused listening and building on each other's ideas.  However, I would say that it was hard for some of us to clarify or be on the same page with the topic.  I think this has to do with little background knowledge to evaluate and discuss the ideas with facts to support opinions.  It was a good conversation though, and interesting to hear the varying viewpoints.  No matter how everyone felt about being vaccinated, the conversation was respectful.  This was evident through body language, tone, and the fact that no one was upset once the conversation was over.  I am personally glad that I am able to identify these skills for conversation.  I feel this is helpful in being able to teach my students to converse appropriately.   

]]> 2021-04-26 16:00:04 UTC https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1460260267 February Chat duffv https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1460993646 For an English language learner, I think the hardest conversation skill for them to utilize would be to clarify and elaborate ideas.  They would need to have quite a bit of English vocabulary and be comfortable enough with it to keep track of what they were hearing, organize the key speaker's points, and be able to process what what was said to describe what they heard in their own words.  I do believe, with practice over time that they could master this conversation skill.  As far as the easiest skill is concerned, I think teaching them to support ideas with examples would be less challenging to teach through modeling and practice. 

]]> 2021-04-26 18:12:39 UTC https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1460993646 January Chat https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1470620828 Karen Hayes
A late conversation, but here is the summary....
I had a discussion with co-workers about a recent news story.  A principal does not want her teachers/staff to get the covid vaccine.  She has sent out a letter requesting that they wait until the summer if they are interested in the vaccine and then after the "clinical trial" IF there is an open position for them they can return.  All were involved in focused listening and interested in the topic.  We clarified her reasoning what she thought would happen if these teachers were around students.  Does she think that it contains a live strain that might be passed onto the students?  A comparison was made on the principal's comment that it is a "clinical trial".  I am involved in a migraine clinical trial.  Would she have the same response and not want me around students?  We built on the idea by wondering about privacy laws.  Just as my principal shouldn't be allowed to ask and require that I have a vaccine, they shouldn't be allowed to ask and refuse my position because I have taken the vaccine.

]]> 2021-04-28 18:42:46 UTC https://padlet.com/dankok/1kt00662ucv857wl/wish/1470620828