By now it’s a given: if we’re to help our ELLs and SELs access the rigorous demands of today’s content standards, we must explicitly teach the “code” that drives school success: academic language. Look no further than this much-anticipated series, in which Ivannia Soto invites field authorities to share every teacher’s need-to-know strategies on the four essential components of academic language. The subject of this volume is conversational discourse. Here, Jeff Zwiers reveals the power of academic conversation in helping students develop language, clarify concepts, comprehend complex texts, and fortify thinking and relational skills.