Academic Conversations Prompts

SKILL Listening Partner Speaking Partner Come “Why do you think the author wrote this?” “I think the author write it to teach us about…” up What are some themes that emerged in…” “One theme might be…” with worthy topic (put palm of hand up) “Tell me more about…?” “In other words…” Elaborate and Clarify “Can you elaborate on…?” “An analogy for this might be…” (put hands apart) “I wonder how/why…?” “It is important because…” “That’s true, but how…?” “It’s similar to when… “What do you think about…?” “What I’m trying to say is…” “Why do you think that is?” “What do you mean by (vague word)? “Can you be more specific? “Can you give an example from the text/other “For example…” Support Ideas with Examples texts/your life?” “In the text it said that…” (put two palms up) “What is a real-world example?” “An example from my life/the world/another “Can you show me where it says that?” text is…” “What is the evidence for that?” “To demonstrate…” “Such as…?” “In this situation…” “Why is that a good example?” “For instance…” “According to…” Build On: “Do you agree?” Build “I would add that…” “Can you add to this idea?” On “I want to expand upon your point about…” “Can you offer another point of view?” “I want to follow up on your idea…” “How does that connect to the idea…?” Challenge: “I’m not sure if this is relevant, but…” and/or Challenge a Partner’s “Then again, I think that…” “ Idea How can we bring this back to the question “Another way to look at this could be…” (layer hands) of…?” “I see your point, however…” “That’s a good point, too, but you also need to “But if ______, then ______” consider…” “Maybe so, but what if…?” “So how can we apply this idea to our lives? “In my life…” Apply/Connect “What can we learn from this “I think it can teach us…” (hook both hands together) character/part/story?” “If I were…,I would have…” “If you were…”

“Let’s sum up – what have we discussed so “We can say that…” Synthesize Conversation Points far…?” “The main theme/point seems to be…” (cup both hands into a ball) “How can we bring this all together?” “As a result of this conversation, I think that we “What can we agree upon?” should…” “What main points can we share?” “How does this sound…?” “What was our original question?” “What if we…?” “What key idea can we take away?” “The evidence seems to suggest that…”

Sample of starters and transition terms:  For example…  According to...  To illustrate...  Another example...  Such as...  As stated in...  The author stated...  For instance...  Consider...  In fact...  The text shows...  As evidence of...  Specifically...  Let’s take the case of... adapted from Academic Conversations (Jeff Zwiers & Marie Crawford, Stenhouse Publishers, 2011)