Jeff Zwiers, EdD, is a senior researcher at Stanford University. His research, work, and publications focus on improving the quality and quantity of peer-to-peer conversations to help students learn and grow.

This accessible manual emphasizes the crucial importance of these interchanges and offers strategies for making each conversation count. Author Zwiers, an education professor and researcher at Stanford, notes that talking builds social, intellectual, problem-solving, and emotional skills. He emphasizes that using specific prompts can encourage children to hone their reasoning skills, increase feelings of empathy, and yield deeper, more thoughtful responses. He offers numerous sample conversations that demonstrate how to put his advice into action, and devotes specific chapters to talking about stories, history, science, math, and "conversations that grow the heart." He includes helpful charts and graphic organizers in which families can record their conversations as they work their way through lengthy discussions or weigh the pros and cons of a situation. [P]arents looking for guidance on how to have better, longer, and more meaningful conversations with their kids will appreciate the straightforward advice.

• Introduction Chapter 1: Conversing to Cultivate your Child’s Mind & HeartChapter 2: Developing Conversation Habits, Skills, and MindsetsChapter 3: Conversations about StoriesChapter 4: Conversations about HistoryChapter 5: Conversations about Science Chapter 6: Conversations about MathChapter 7: Conversations that Grow the HeartAbout the Author

Jeff Zwiers, EdD, is a senior researcher at Stanford University. His research, work, and publications focus on improving the quality and quantity of peer-to-peer conversations to help students learn and grow.

This accessible manual emphasizes the crucial importance of these interchanges and offers strategies for making each conversation count. Author Zwiers, an education professor and researcher at Stanford, notes that talking builds social, intellectual, problem-solving, and emotional skills. He emphasizes that using specific prompts can encourage children to hone their reasoning skills, increase feelings of empathy, and yield deeper, more thoughtful responses. He offers numerous sample conversations that demonstrate how to put his advice into action, and devotes specific chapters to talking about stories, history, science, math, and "conversations that grow the heart." He includes helpful charts and graphic organizers in which families can record their conversations as they work their way through lengthy discussions or weigh the pros and cons of a situation. [P]arents looking for guidance on how to have better, longer, and more meaningful conversations with their kids will appreciate the straightforward advice.

• Introduction Chapter 1: Conversing to Cultivate your Child’s Mind & HeartChapter 2: Developing Conversation Habits, Skills, and MindsetsChapter 3: Conversations about StoriesChapter 4: Conversations about HistoryChapter 5: Conversations about Science Chapter 6: Conversations about MathChapter 7: Conversations that Grow the HeartAbout the Author

Jeff Zwiers, EdD, is a senior researcher at Stanford University. His research, work, and publications focus on improving the quality and quantity of peer-to-peer conversations to help students learn and grow.

This accessible manual emphasizes the crucial importance of these interchanges and offers strategies for making each conversation count. Author Zwiers, an education professor and researcher at Stanford, notes that talking builds social, intellectual, problem-solving, and emotional skills. He emphasizes that using specific prompts can encourage children to hone their reasoning skills, increase feelings of empathy, and yield deeper, more thoughtful responses. He offers numerous sample conversations that demonstrate how to put his advice into action, and devotes specific chapters to talking about stories, history, science, math, and "conversations that grow the heart." He includes helpful charts and graphic organizers in which families can record their conversations as they work their way through lengthy discussions or weigh the pros and cons of a situation. [P]arents looking for guidance on how to have better, longer, and more meaningful conversations with their kids will appreciate the straightforward advice.

• Introduction Chapter 1: Conversing to Cultivate your Child’s Mind & HeartChapter 2: Developing Conversation Habits, Skills, and MindsetsChapter 3: Conversations about StoriesChapter 4: Conversations about HistoryChapter 5: Conversations about Science Chapter 6: Conversations about MathChapter 7: Conversations that Grow the HeartAbout the Author