1. Academic Conversations
Hand out books, Calendar of meetings posted
Post it: Why are you here? What caused you to sign up for this course?
Clock Hours
ELL Sign in Sheets
Time Sheets

2. 2. Support Ideas with Examples 3. Build On/Challenge Partner’s Idea
Five Essential Skills
1. Elaborate and Clarify
2. Support Ideas with Examples
3. Build On/Challenge Partner’s Idea
4. Paraphrase
5. Synthesize Conversation Points
See sentence frames for prompting
and responding (handout).

3. Elaborating provides more important information about the topic.
1. Elaborate and Clarify
Elaborating provides more important information about the topic.
Clarifying makes the ideas more clear.
Listen in and keep the conversation going!

4. 2. Support Ideas with Examples
We use examples to strengthen our ideas and arguments.
Examples are the evidence.
The main types of examples are from:
The text
Other texts
The world
One’s own experiences
Teach students to use the strongest evidence

5. 3. Build On and Challenge a Partner’s Idea
Loose List of
Ideas and Details
Co-constructed Conversations
Ideas in an academic conversation should not be random and unrelated
We should connect our ideas to build on or logically challenge our partners
Requires a building mindset, not competing one

6. 4. Paraphrase Skills Purpose Keeping track of what we’re hearing
Organizing the speaker’s points
Describe what we understand in our own words
Purpose
Partners negotiate meaning by synthesizing and clarifying
Listener stays focused on the main topic

7. 5. Synthesize Conversation Points
Synthesis
Involves remembering, highlighting and fitting together the key ideas into a coherent statement
Solidifies the purpose of the conversation
Forms the conclusion
Partners may agree to disagree