Peer feedback strengthens essay preparation.
Talk It Out printing masters make it easy.

How would you like to . . . .

Spend less time preparing teaching materials.

Train students to write on their own.

Improve students' critical thinking skills.

Give individual help to a whole class simultaneously.

Produce multiple sets of class materials at the press of a button.

I've packed 35 years and two masters' degrees worth of tricks into one package so you can do it all that.

Hi,

I'm Linda Aragoni.

If you've spent time at this website, you've probably already learned that and I've been writing, editing and teaching writing to someone, someplace, since the last dinosaur died.

My sister bugged me to prepare materials for folks like herself who had to teach writing without having had training in teaching writing. Since 2008, I've been building web pages to help you

Make all students competent expository writers.

Teach what students must know.

Do less teaching in more depth.

Use nonfiction writing to achieve other goals across the curriculum.

Reduce the hassle of teaching struggling, beginning writers.

Now I'm taking my training offerings for you to a new level with a new resource, Talk It Out.

Talk It Out is not your typical writing teacher resource. It is

NOT a book you have to study.

NOT a program you have to master.

NOT DVDs you have to watch.

Instead, it is a duplication master you can print and use without any additional preparation on your part.

Tackle the toughest part of teaching beginning writers by letting them talk before they write.

We both know the most difficult part of teaching beginning and reluctant writers: getting them to identify and develop a topic to write about. That's where talking can help.

A series of 35 questions guides students in critical thinking strategies that help them prepare to write.

Using Talk It Out questions, one student can provide guidance and peer feedback to another. As they help each other, both get better at thinking through the complicated process of finding something to write.

All 35 questions are geared toward writing just one type of essay, the thesis + support ("persuasive pattern") nonfiction essay. There are no extraneous topics to confuse beginning essayists.

The questions focus on essential planning tasks.

Students talk each other through the entire process of planning an expository essay using the prepared questions to guide them. The questions . . . .

Make writers identify the assignment's purpose.

Get writers to spell out a working thesis.

Sharpen the thesis wording.

Identify good supporting points.

Determine the readers' information needs.

Decide what evidence the writer already has.

Figure out sources for more information.

Evaluate whether readers will be impressed with the writer's evidence

Icons on individual questions indicate how writers use their answers in developing their essays. Guided by the icons, student helpers give their peers feedback on how to use those answers. Students are almost always more open to other students' suggestions than to a teacher's.

You get teacher resources, too.

I don't think you'll need any extra help, but I've included additional resources so you can be confident of your ability to teach the critical thinking strategies that enable students to write expository essays.

You could do this yourself instead of buying from me.

If you have been teaching a writing process for thesis + support pattern essays for over a quarter century as I have, you could prepare similar materials for your students to use, no problem.

Come to think of it, I gave you directions for making materials similar to Talk It Out. How come you didn't make your own before? We know the answer to that question, don't we? You were too busy teaching to have the time.

If you are new to teaching writing, you could do what I did: dig into the journals, translate the scholarship into directions for students, write a set of questions, test them a dozen or so times, and format them for easy duplication.

Are you sure you have the time to do all that?

Talk It Out is not right for every teacher.

Talk It Out materials are not for kind of person who says, "Brushing your teeth doesn't prevent decay. I brushed my teeth once and they still rotted."

Unless you are going to have your students use the materials often enough that the critical thinking strategy becomes a habit, you might as well spend your money on bubble gum and lottery tickets.

You also shouldn't buy this product if your goal is to have your students write fiction or poetry. These materials are not designed for peer feedback on imaginative writing. They are designed to work specifically with expository nonfiction developed by the thesis + support ("persuasive essay") pattern.

Here's what you get when you buy Talk It Out.

Talk It Out gives you time.

Using students to help students, you can provide individualized peer feedback to an entire class in the time it would take you to help one student personally.

You don't need to prepare new questions each time you get a new textbook. Talk It Out can be used with any text.

You won't waste time teaching new strategies for each new type of essay. The questions can be easily adapted to any expository essay except the pure first-person narrative.

Talk It Out gives you convenience.

Questions on the two-page PDF are sized to print on self-adhesive address labels you can buy at any office supply store. Stick the printed labels to index cards and you will have a teaching aid that will last a long time. Or print on ordinary paper if durability is not an issue for you.

If you do need a replacement set, no problem. You may make as many copies as you need for your classes as long as you teach, wherever you teach. This is such a good deal that I must insist that you keep it to yourself. It is not ethical or legal for you to let someone else use the master you purchased or to give someone else copies of the questions to use with their students. (However, be sure you keep a backup copy for yourself!)

Besides the questions, Talk It Out comes with suggestions for using the questions and for teaching critical thinking strategies.

A PowerPoint® presentation is included for introducing the peer learning strategy to students, but you can use the materials without the PowerPoint®.

Talk It Out gives you flexibility.

Although Talk It Out is designed as a peer-teaching activity (that's its best use), you can use it in a homeschool setting with a single student.

A parent could use it to supplement public school instruction for a student who is struggling with writing.

Or a classroom teacher could use the material in tutoring an individual student with interests or abilities beyond those of the rest of the class.

The questions can be used with most students seventh grade and older. The questions are written simply, but they are not "dumbed down." You would not be embarrassed to use them with community college students. (I developed the questions initially for first year college students.)

Talk It Out gives you less stress.

Teens like the social aspect of talking through an assignment. They won't give you nearly as much hassle as they would if you asked them to do the same work in writing.

And since the questions are keyed to the thesis + support essay, you don't have to worry (much!) about students getting way off track.

MY GUARANTEE: If you are not satisfied with Talk It Out, let me know within 30 days from purchase and I'll refund your money. In 30 days, your students can use the questions weekly for four weeks, which provides a good test of the materials' value.

Here's what's in the zipped package.

The package consists of three digital products in a zipped file:

A PDF file containing a duplication master laid out to print on two 20-up sheets of 1- X 4-inch labels

A PDF file for teachers containing instructions for using the masters and tips for using Talk It Out with students.

PowerPoint® file containing a presentation teachers may use to introduce students to using Talk It Out questions.

Here's the place to buy Talk It Out.

The entire package of materials is just $12.99

Even a cheapskate like me would buy something I could use for the rest of my teaching career at that price. What about you?

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NOTES: These materials are digital products. After you complete your purchase, you may download them to your computer, unzip them, and either read or print them from your computer. You will not receive any physical product in the mail. INSTALLATION & USE HELPS: If you are running under a Windows operating system, you can get directions for unzipping a file from Microsoft®. To read PDF files, you need a PDF reader such as FoxIt™ Reader or Acrobat® Reader®. Both are free. To read the PPT files, you need Microsoft® PowerPoint® or free PowerPoint viewer. Get a PowerPoint viewer for your operating system free from the download section of the Microsoft® website.

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