Raise Your Voices

Thomas M. McCann is a professor of English at Northern Illinois University, where he contributes to the teacher licensure program. His books include Transforming Talk into Text and Literacy and History in Action (Teachers College Press) and the co-authored Talking in Class (NCTE, 2006), The Dynamics of Writing Instruction (Heinemann, 2010), and Teaching Matters Most (Corwin Press, 2012).Andrew Bouque teaches English at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. In his 19 years in public high schools, he has worked to build classroom communities for students to find, develop, and refine their spoken voices and craft arguments that matter. Dawn Forde is a teacher at Adlai E. Stevenson High School and has been learning from her students for the past seventeen years. She has presented at local, state, and national conferences, primarily focusing on discussion and its effects on literacy and student engagement. Elizabeth A. Kahn taught English language arts for 36 years and served as English department chair; she now teaches in the English teacher education program at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. She has co-authored several books, including Discussion Pathways to Literacy Learning (NCTE 2018), The Dynamics of Writing Instruction (Heinemann 2010), and Writing About Literature (NCTE 1984 and 2009, updated edition).Carolyn Calhoun Walter taught English students for thirty years at both public and private high schools and now supervises student teachers for Northern Illinois University. Ms. Walter is a regular presenter at national conferences and has co-authored Designing and Sequencing Pre-Writing Activities and Writing about Literature, and Discussion Pathways to Literacy Learning.

Teachers will find answers to many questions they may have about dialogic instruction in Raise Your Voices: Inquiry, Discussion, and Literacy Learning. Unlike many, perhaps most books on this topic, it is written “from the trenches” by experienced teachers. Dialogic instruction is increasingly challenged by prescriptive lesson plans that make little room for authentic questions and open-ended questions. Dialogic instruction is moreover particularly challenging for new teachers who may not always know how to interpret pauses in student responses to their questions: Did they ask a dumb question or a challenging thought-provoking one? Silence can be hard for a new inexperienced teacher to understand. Fortunately, they will find experienced guidance to such questions in Raise Your Voices: Inquiry, Discussion, and Literacy Learning.

• ForewordCarol D. Lee, Northwestern UniversityAcknowledgementsEditors’ Introduction to Raise Your VoicesPart I: Inviting ConversationsEditors’ Introduction to Part IChapter 1: Inquiry and DiscussionThomas M. McCann, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IllinoisChapter 2: Authentic Discussion and WritingElizabeth E. Kahn, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IllinoisChapter 3: Discussion and LiteratureCarolyn Calhoun Walter, Northern IllinoisUniversityChapter 4: Daily Classroom Discourse That Supports Speaking and Listening GoalsKim Gwizdala, Glenbard West, High School, Glen Ellyn, IllinoisPart II: Reflecting on Practice to Foster Engagement and LearningEditors’ Introduction to Part IIChapter 5: Seeing and Hearing What Actually HappensDawn Forde, Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire, IllinoisChapter 6: Inviting Student Reflection on ParticipationAndrew Bouque, Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire, IllinoisChapter 7: Planning, Managing, and Troubleshooting for Rich DiscussionsAndrew Bouque and Dawn Forde, Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire, IllinoisPart III: Expanding ConversationsEditors’ Introduction to Part IIIChapter 8: Layers of DiscussionLisa Whitmer, Larkin High School, Elgin, Illinois Chapter 9: Extending the Conversation: Discussion-Based Inquiry UnitsJulianna Cucci and Zanfina Rrahmani Muja, Maine Township High School District, DesPlaines, IllinoisChapter 10: Digital DiscussionsNicole Boudreau Smith and Mark Patton, Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire, IllinoisChapter 11: Discussion, Deliberation, and DemocracyTamara Jaffe-Notier, Niles West High School, Skokie, Illinois Part IV: Including Everyone in ConversationsEditors’ Introduction to Part IV Chapter 12: Discussion with English Learners: Both Possible and PowerfulBarbara Alvarez, Huntley High School, Huntley, Illinois, and Shannon McMullen, Glenbard North High School, Carol Stream, Illinois Chapter 13: Discussing Difference: Engaging Students with Learning Differences in Authentic DiscussionClaire Walter, Wolcott School, Chicago, IllinoisChapter 14: “Talk isn’t Cheap in Here:” Discussion in Prison ClassroomsDeborah Appleman, Carleton College, Northfield, MinnesotaChapter 15: A Place for Reticent SpeakersPatricia Dalton, Fremont High School, Sunnyvale, California About the EditorsAbout the Contributors