It’s been a BIG year at REAL! Read more in our Annual Report
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Information & Inspiration
from real teachers, real students & real research
How students who would rather talk than text imagine discussion in their futures We talk often about the “why” behind our work. We’re passionate about teaching discussion skills because we believe they define humanity – that they’re critical for success in the classroom, the cafeteria, or around the kitchen table. In our tech-centric world, conversation…
At R.E.A.L. ®, we are big on listening! Over the past two years, we’ve listened to our partner schools, and we’ve heard one repeated thing loud and clear: we shouldn’t wait until middle school to teach students discussion skills. We listened, and we agreed. But per usual, we had a lot of follow-up questions. What…
by Harriet Piercy Harriet Piercy has taught English at London secondary schools since 2015 and held a number of roles as a curriculum leader. She is currently joint head of the English faculty at Haggerston School in Hackney. She was recently a Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching scholar at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, undertaking…
Dr. Sarah Bennison is the co-founder and CEO of the Mattering Movement, an organization focused on combating the pandemic of loneliness and despair—that is, a widespread mattering deficit—that’s harming today’s youth. What follows is a conversation between Sarah and R.E.A.L. Founder Liza Garonzik. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity. Liza: Welcome, Sarah, we’re…
Dr. Ruth Braunstein is the founder of The Meanings of Democracy Lab at the University of Connecticut. The lab engages students and partners in collaborative research and discussion about the contested moral and cultural foundations of American democratic life. What follows is a conversation between Ruth and R.E.A.L. Director of Program Emily Gromoll. The interview…
Over 2,000 students in grades 6-11 responded to the student survey we sent following the first R.E.A.L.® cycle of the 2023-2024 school year. The results were fascinating! While we saw some expected areas of growth – we usually see students master “Excerpting” early, and we did once again! – we also noticed some surprising patterns…
Remember Computer Labs? When I was growing up, schools had Computer Labs: structured programs where students learned future-focused skills like typing and eye-mouse coordination (yes, that was a thing). Today’s schools don’t need Computer Labs, but at R.E.A.L.® we believe they need Conversation Labs: programs that explicitly teach discussion skills to kids growing up and…
As we turn the page to a fresh new year, we’re eager to see how seeds we planted in 2023 will bloom in 2024. One thing we’re most proud of from 2023? Developing our R.E.A.L.® Trainer program. R.E.A.L.® Trainers are teachers or leaders who have experience using R.E.A.L.® in their classrooms. They join R.E.A.L.® to…
We talk – often – about the negative ramifications today’s teens face of living in a screen-bound world. We postulate about the impact of ever-increasing screen time and ever-improving technology on teens’ mental health, their attention spans, and their conversation skills. We theorize about kids’ “addictions” to their phones, to social media, to screens. As…
Sarah Hanawald is the Senior Director of the Association for Academic Leaders at One Schoolhouse, a partner in innovation to independent schools around the world. What follows is a conversation between Sarah and R.E.A.L.® Founder Liza Garonzik. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity. Liza: Sarah, thanks for being with us today. We are…
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