Discussion Builders Workshop

Who Should Participate

The Discussion Builders Workshop provides a quick but invaluable look inside effective classroom discussions, and prepares teachers to implement immediately several evidence-based, effective teaching strategies that foster oral and written academic language.

This one-day workshop is ideal for K-8 teachers who would like to help students overcome academic, linguistic, and social barriers in classroom discussions. Although originally created for mathematics, the discussion tools and theories can be applied within any subject area and are especially beneficial for English learners.

What Resources Support Your Learning

Classroom discussions promote academic success by building powerful communication and reasoning skills. Discussion Builders posters help students of all achievement levels build these crucial skills. Sentence stems on the posters provide students with a scaffold for voicing their ideas and questions and valuing others' contributions.

The posters are powerful tools for helping students — including English language learners — present and expand on their ideas. The three levels of posters and teaching guides scaffold progressively more sophisticated language and reasoning across the grades.

A quick-guide for teachers explains how to get students talking — and thinking — more conceptually. The guide includes tasks and blackline masters for introducing and sustaining the use of Discussion Builders in any subject area. Participants at Discussion Builders Workshops receive one poster and Teaching Guide appropriate to their grade level: either K–1, 2–3, or 4–8.

What You Learn

In this one-day workshop, K–8 participants will:

• Learn how to help students overcome academic, linguistic, and social barriers in classroom discussions.
• Think about the role of academic language development in academic success.
• Practice facilitating productive discussions in mathematics, literature, social studies, and other content areas.

Goals for Institute Participants

Return to your classroom comfortable in leading effective discussions that boost collaborative and respectful critical thinking among your students.

Who Facilitates Your Learning

Workshops will be led by Alma Ramirez, who co-directs Math Pathways & Pitfalls at WestEd with Carne Barnett-Clarke.

Ramirez has been an educator for 20 years, serving as a bilingual elementary and middle school teacher of English learners in urban settings. In addition, Ramirez has considerable expertise as a professional developer and mathematics curriculum writer. The majority of her time is spent producing rigorous and accessible materials for students, including English learners, who have traditionally been underrepresented in mathematics.

Ramirez has been a pre-K, elementary, and middle school textbook author, and has consulted in a number of mathematics professional and curriculum development projects focused on equity and access.

What Is the Cost

The workshop, poster, and Teaching Guide cost only $350 per participant. Teachers participating in teams of three or more are eligible to attend the workshop for $300 each. Registrations and payments postmarked by June 15 qualify for a discount.

Registration Form

Download the 2009 Discussion Builders Workshop registration form.

Contact Information

Alma Ramirez
510.302.4249
aramire@wested.org