The Best-Kept Teaching Secret: How Written Conversations Engage Kids, Activate Learning, Grow Fluent Writers . . . K-12

Your fast-track to student engagement
Everywhere Smokey Daniels goesevery school he visits, every workshop he leads, every keynote he givestheres one teaching strategy that teachers embrace above all others. That single method for transforming students from passive spectators into active learners . . . for evoking curiosity, inspiring critical thinking, and building powerful writers along the way.

Now, with Elaine Daniels as Smokeys coauthor, that best-kept teaching secret is revealed to teachers at large: Written Conversations.

Just what make Written Conversations so potent? An ongoing, thoughtful correspondence between students, and between students and their teachers, Written Conversations, above all else, catch and ride the wave of social interaction, which in turn makes school matter to kids. Its that simple. Structure by structure, from beginning to end, Smokey and Elaine describe four variations of these silent writing-to-learn discussions, during which all students in a classroom think and talk at once in writing, instead of one at a time out loud.

How Written Conversations Work

1. It all starts with mini-memos, short student letters that teachers use to introduce, extend, and assess class work.
2. Then come dialogue journals, where pairs dive deeply into academic subjects.
3. Next, groups of three or four students join in extended written discussions called write-arounds.
4. Finally, kids take their thinking online, where they enjoy digital discussions with partners from their own classroomand with kids from around the world.

. . . all the while, you are supported by detailed descriptions of each structure, lessons, and annotated student samplesmaking this the most practical teaching book in recent memory.

What kid wouldnt want to refine written argument skills, clarify a point, or defend anothers viewpoint, when the audience is people who matter? And Yes, Written Conversations align with the Common Core Standards for writing, reading, language, and speaking and listening, taking students well beyond the standards themselves.