Shut up!: A Quick & Dirty Guide to Increasing Student Talk and Decreasing Teacher Talk in the Classroom

Most classrooms are dominated by teacher talk. While few would dispute the necessity of some direct instruction, excessive teacher talk yields lower levels of student engagement and, by association, less thinking, less learning, and more misbehavior. Many teachers who try to increase their students' opportunities to converse with each other find the process stymied by disruptive student behavior or unwillingness to engage productively. In this short volume, Deb Teitelbaum provides easy-to-follow instructions that allow teachers to slowly build their students' competency in academic discourse. Later chapters include instruction in more complex conversational techniques, such as the Socratic Seminar. Dr. Teitelbaum's writing style is one of casual confidence laced with irreverent humor. This is the professional text you wouldn't mind reading at the beach.