Listening and Talking Across Literacy and Math

Teacher's Corner

Kassia Omohundro Wedekind and Christy Hermann Thompson have spent years comparing notes on how to build effective classroom communities across the content areas.

Their research led to the development of Hands Down Conversations, an innovative discourse structure in which all students’ ideas and voices take the lead while teachers focus on listening and facilitating. That structure is detailed in their new book, Hands Down Speak Out: Listening and Talking Across Literacy and Math, K-5.

In today’s episode, Kassia and Christy share their thinking behind their book and the importance of investing time developing dialogue skills to deepen understanding of literacy and mathematics, and also of ourselves and our world. There’s loads of thoughtful and engaging talk here today, starting with Kassia sharing how she and Christy became friends.

----------------------------------------------------------------Links:

Hands Down, Speak Out:

https://www.stenhouse.com/content/hands-down-speak-out

You can find Kassia and Christy online at https://handsdownspeakout.wordpress.com

Twitter: @kassiaowedekind & @TeacherThomp

[Original airdate July 2020]