Math teachers know the first step to meaningful mathematics discussions is to ask students to share how they solved a problem and make their thinking visible; however, knowing where to go next can be a daunting task. In Intentional Talk: How to Structure and Lead Productive Mathematical Discussions , authors Elham Kazemi and Allison Hintz provide teachers with a framework for planning and facilitating purposeful math talks that move group discussions to the next level while achieving a mathematical goal.Through detailed vignettes from both primary and upper elementary classrooms, the authors provide a window into how teachers lead discussions and make important pedagogical decisions along the way. By creating equitable opportunities to share ideas, teachers can orient students to one another while enforcing that all students are sense makers and their ideas are valued. They examine students' roles as both listeners and talkers, offering numerous strategies for improving student participation.Intentional Talk includes a collection of lesson planning templates in the appendix to help teachers apply the right structure to discussions in their own classrooms.

When it comes to increasing student motivation and success in writing, classroom talk is a powerful tool. More than simply providing assessment data for predetermined standards, talking with our students builds relationships and acommunitywhere students rely on one another-;not just their teacher-;for advice, affirmation, and support. Let's Talk: Managing One-on-One, Peer, and Small Group Conferences author Mark Overmeyer providesreal classroom examples and stories to help educators make conferences more manageable and meaningful.Organized by types of conferences, Let's Talk distinguishes between teacher-student talk-;which covers one-on-one, small-group, and whole-class conferences-;and student-student talk-;which includes one-on-one and group peer conferences. In addition to addressing the challenges and needsof teachers, coaches, principals, and staff developers in the elementary and middle level grades, Overmeyer also focuses onhow to work with English language learners.Throughout the book, Overmeyer describes how classroom talk benefits students in a variety of ways, from discovering their interests and backgrounds as writers to helping them develop the language to reflect on their writing progress.