Jen Rohde

LAN 213
Professional Journal #3
3-15-17

For my third professional journal article I chose one titled Academic Conversations:

Introducing communication skills to develop language and learn content. This article was

written by Sara Hamerla and can be found in the November/December 2016 issue of Literacy

Today. The article talks about how to systematically teach kids the skills necessary in order to

have academic conversations. There are four main parts to teaching this skill. You must

establish what the norms of an academic conversation looks like, you define and practice active

listening skills, the teacher introduces the four core communication skills which are create ideas,

clarify ideas, support ideas with examples, and evaluate ideas. The instruction part is followed

up by modeling conversations, incorporating technology to provide accurate feedback, and by

getting the students families involved.

When I first started reading this article I felt the ideas were going to be something very

grand and elaborate. But as I continued to read I quickly realized that the concepts the author,

Sara Hamerla, was referring to is something that I do regularly and honestly thought a large

majority of others did as well. I never thought of having to teach eye contact when you are

speaking directly to a person. I thought nodding and affirmative comments were something that

came naturally in conversation and didn’t need to be directly taught. I suppose, if I could recall

being a young girl in school, I would recall being shy and reserved. When I think of it in that

context, then I can definitely see why you would have to teach students those types of skills. I

feel that some of those skills also come along with maturity and self-confidence.

I especially loved the ideas of two adults modeling ineffective conversation and effective

academic conversation. I feel that gives the students an idea of how simple and natural the

conversation can be, yet still hold to a high level of academic standards. The idea of filming the
Jen Rohde
LAN 213
Professional Journal #3
3-15-17

students while they practice their academic conversations is also genius. This provides real time

feedback, you can re-watch and analyze yourself numerous times, and when compiled it can act

as a video journal of where you started and where you are now. It can also help the teacher and

students alike to determine strong and weak areas of their conversation skills. This would allow

for specific pairings that could compliment, or utilize each students strong and weak area.

Having a skill like academic conversation will serve you well outside the classroom as

well. I feel it can help with critical thinking of any subject, it gives you poise that could be

beneficial in areas like interviewing, and you can hold your own in social situations where

academic conversation is utilized in areas like chatting or even at some game playing. The

techniques taught, how techniques are practiced, and how they are measured for growth hit upon

so many of the areas of language arts. In addition, as you teach each technique and record each

student’s response to the instruction, displaying what they have learned, you can also use it as

formative assessments.

The benefits of learning academic conversation are also amazing, even to second

language learners. Everything from learning how to respond, to knowing how to organize our

thoughts for written text. Academic language helps students grow both academically as well as

by helping to develop their own personal strengths. I have become a believer in the importance

of developing academic conversations skills. It can only serve you well while in school as well

as far into one’s future.

WORKS SITED:

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/7c685ba3#/7c685ba3/32
Jen Rohde
LAN 213
Professional Journal #3
3-15-17