ABSTRACT
Students are able to come to the meeting area and form a circle or sit on the edges of the carpet. There are no prerequisite dialogue skills for starting Hands-Down Conversations. As teachers of writing, math, and reading, the people are very familiar with the idea that learning is a series of approximations. Similarly, learning the tools of talk empowers students’ voices beyond the space of teacher-facilitated conversations. The purpose of the micro-lessons in this chapter is to establish the building blocks of the talk community, which will be constructed by both the teacher and the students. Some crosstalk is part of most authentic conversations. When launching Hands-Down Conversations, the challenge for some classes is too many voices talking at one time. It is important to know that most people don’t achieve their goals in one conversation.
