Are the literature discussions in your classes a one-way conversation where you do all the talking? Or are they dominated by a small cadre of big talkers? No matter why book talk needs enlivening, Barry Gilmore has a simple, ready-to-implement solution that will grab your students' attention, energize their exchanges, and help them find their speaking voices.

In Speaking Volumes, Gilmore offers accessible, classroom-tested, and matter-of-fact techniques grounded in the idea that literary conversations thrive when students can connect their interests and beliefs to what they're reading. Gilmore's ideas for new, unusual, and original models for engaged discussion are easy to reproduce and use, and they get results. Speaking Volumes includes:

• numerous sample activities based on commonly taught literature
• quotations, prompts, and reproducible surveys to help you open, focus, or plan a discussion
• teacher-friendly uses for technology that stimulate conversations
• activities that connect ideas from books to current events and issues
• detailed follow-ups to help you assess what a book discussion has contributed to students' understanding.