Academic Conversation Skills Flipbook for Discussions

Students can use this flipbook as a reference during academic conversation and discussions. These skills should be explicitly taught, and eventually students shouldn't need to reference these speaking stems during conversation. Until they have mastered these speaking skills, this flipbook provides appropriate scaffolding for their conversations. Speaking "stems," "starters," or "frames" have been organized by conversation skill (5 tabs) and even further into ways to prompt the skill through questioning and ways to respond (t-chart on each tab).

The 5 Conversation Skills by which the stems are organized:
1. Elaborate and Clarify Ideas
2. Support Ideas with Examples
3. Build on Ideas or Challenge
4. Paraphrase What's Been Said
5. Synthesize the Conversation