About

We equip schools to teach face-to-face discussion and authentic interaction as essential skills for today’s world.

About

We equip schools to teach face-to-face discussion and authentic interaction as essential skills for today’s world.

Featured School Partners

Group of students with teacher

Our Story

As a teacher and school leader, Liza Garonzik saw that her Gen Z and Gen Alpha students struggled to listen, speak, and engage in meaningful discussion. She recognized these skills as high-stakes—essential for learning, life, and our shared future.

Over the next decade, she worked with educators, researchers, and experts to develop R.E.A.L.®: A research-informed, practice-proven model for teaching and assessing discussion skills.

Today, we partner with schools through R.E.A.L.® Services, including professional learning, custom programs, and consulting. The results—seen in the student results and teacher stories below—are powerful and lasting.

What’s the secret ingredient? We are educators who understand and respect how schools actually work, and futurists who know human connection is essential in a tech-centric world. Learn more in the new book – Conversation Comeback: A Teacher’s Guide to Class Discussion in a Distracted, Divided World.

Our Leadership

R.E.A.L.® is a team of passionate professionals (and unabashed nerds), made up of educators and parents with a personal stake in our mission.

Liza Garonzik

Founder + CEO

Emily Gromoll

Chief Learning Officer

Dr. Sidra Smith

Head of Professional Learning

Dr. Carri Schneider

Chief Marketing Officer

FAQs: What is R.E.A.L.® Discussion, Exactly?

R.E.A.L.® Discussion is a research-informed, practice-proven program that helps schools teach real-world communication skills through structured, academically anchored discussion. Built by and for educators, it transforms classroom talk into a powerful learning tool that strengthens the academic core and prepares students to lead, listen, and learn in today’s complex world. R.E.A.L.® breaks discussion into four core, teachable skills: Relate, Excerpt, Ask, and Listen. Through repeatable routines, student portfolios, and teacher dashboards, students build habits of deep engagement that extend far beyond the classroom.

In many schools, discussion is “everywhere and nowhere.” Individual teachers may “have discussions,” but that is different from explicitly teaching discussion skills to ALL students. Usually, schools don’t have the shared language, common instructional practices, or assessment benchmarks they need to consistently and equitably teach discussion skills. In a world shaped by distraction, division, and accelerating automation, the stakes are high: these skills are uniquely human and empower students to engage academically, socially, and societally. R.E.A.L.® addresses this gap by helping schools embed communication as a core competency, usually first as part of humanities curricula. Ultimately, it equips students with real-world communication skills they’ll use in school, in relationships, in workplaces, and in life, and gives teachers the tools to teach and assess those skills with intention and impact.

R.E.A.L.® is not a format, such as Socratic Seminar, or a toolkit, like Responsive Classroom. It is a comprehensive model for making discussion skills visible, measurable, and teachable. Unlike other approaches, R.E.A.L.® provides:

  • A shared language and structure that spans grades and departments.
  • Student-facing materials and teacher-facing dashboards.
  • Assessment tools that support both academic rigor and classroom culture.
  • Built-in routines for skill development, peer feedback, and reflection, R.E.A.L.® is academically anchored, not an SEL activity or add-on. It turns speaking, listening, and questioning into instructional tools that strengthen student engagement and ensure EVERY student develops the communication skills they need to navigate school, life, and work. It is designed by educators, with educators, to fit real classrooms.

R.E.A.L.® is grounded in a wide and rigorous body of research that includes insights from Project Zero at Harvard, Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine’s work on deeper learning, Ron Ritchhart’s thinking routines, Angela Duckworth’s research on motivation and social-emotional development, and Justin Reich’s studies of schools as learning organizations at MIT. It also reflects John Hattie’s findings on the instructional strategies that drive student engagement, and Rebecca Winthrop’s work on re-engaging adolescents. These threads are brought together through the Science of Learning and Development (SoLD) and the science of adolescent learning, both of which emphasize the importance of relationship-rich, cognitively-engaging environments. R.E.A.L.® transforms this research into practical classroom tools using an action research approach by testing strategies in real-world contexts and improving them based on feedback. R.E.A.L.® earns credibility through its consistent application of evidence-based practices in classrooms to support student growth and academic success.

In today’s polarized, screen-saturated world, conversation is breaking down. At the same time, the rise of AI has raised the stakes: the uniquely human skills of listening, connecting, and communicating are more essential and more teachable than ever. If we want students to thrive academically, socially, and professionally, we must explicitly teach them how to communicate with purpose. 

We say R.E.A.L.® is “practice-proven” because schools that use our program report increased participation, engagement, and confidence. They describe deeper, richer conversations and stronger academic and personal conversations and dialogue. Teachers can track student growth in skills and habits, from listening and communicating to developing a sense of belonging and purpose. As an organization, we value teacher voice as much as student voice and have spent the last decade working with teachers to design the tools they need.

R.E.A.L.® is used in over 80 schools across 16 states, reaching students in Grades 2–12. Our partners include a range of school settings, all of which share a belief in the essential role of communication in student success. For stories from the field, visit our Blog or Testimonials.

Schools recognize that communication is essential, but few have the time, tools, or research base to develop a comprehensive model from scratch. R.E.A.L.® is the product of over a decade of classroom-based iteration, shaped by real-world educator feedback. It includes everything schools need to teach and measure discussion, from routines to rubrics to dashboards. Building this independently can take years—especially amidst teacher and leader turnover—and often leads to inconsistent results. R.E.A.L.® offers a ready-to-implement, research-based system that accelerates progress without sacrificing quality.

Schools today face tight timelines, limited resources, and growing expectations. R.E.A.L.® helps by addressing multiple priorities at once. It strengthens instruction, supports student engagement, and equips young people with future-ready skills. It is not extra—it is foundational. Rather than adding one more thing, R.E.A.L.® helps schools double down on mission-critical skills, strengthen what they are already doing, and embed communication into the academic core. For many leaders, it becomes a lever for broader instructional improvement.

R.E.A.L.® supports schools in turning academic discussion into a driver of strategic goals. It seamlessly integrates into humanities curricula, reinforcing rigorous content and equitable engagement while also developing students’ executive function, collaboration skills, and higher-order thinking. As schools move toward learner-centered models and expanded outcomes, R.E.A.L.® equips teachers with practical ways to embed future-ready competencies like communication and collaboration into daily instruction. Every element, from dashboards to rubrics, is designed to align with and amplify what schools already do well.

R.E.A.L.® is actively exploring how generative AI can enhance personalized learning for students by providing real-time feedback and adaptive learning pathways. By integrating AI tools thoughtfully, R.E.A.L.® supports teachers in identifying student needs quickly and tailoring instruction for differentiated learning, ensuring that teaching remains both rigorous and personalized. While AI improves efficiency and expands access, R.E.A.L.® keeps the human connection at its core. The program is built on face-to-face discussion, listening, and collaboration—skills that AI cannot replicate. Our teacher-facing dashboards already use data to generate insights without adding burden, and we continue to explore how AI can further streamline feedback and improve instructional quality.

Each partnership begins with collaborative planning to understand your goals, schedule, and instructional model. From there, R.E.A.L.® provides:

  • Front-end design consulting to tailor the rollout.
  • Professional development (asynchronous and live) that leads to teacher credentialing.
  • Student-facing materials, including custom-branded Discussion Portfolios.
  • Teacher-facing digital dashboards and impact reports.
  • Optional leadership support and change management coaching. The program is modular, scalable, and built to grow with your school.

We have different paths depending on your needs. Our most successful clients do not opt for “one-and-done PD,” but instead commit to a multi-year initiative that includes training, implementation support, and impact assessment. Schools often begin with a pilot and then identify 2-3 key grade levels to embed R.E.A.L.® as a signature program. Our licensing model provides ongoing access to materials, professional development, impact data, and updates. Because R.E.A.L.® is modular, schools can scale at a pace that fits their needs and rhythms.

R.E.A.L.® was built from the inside out. Every routine, prompt, and tool was developed in collaboration with teachers through classroom co-creation and real-time feedback. Teachers receive asynchronous professional development, live workshops, and tools to track the instructional impact through data. R.E.A.L.® is designed to reduce complexity, not add to it, giving teachers clear language, repeatable routines, and flexible implementation supports. Many describe it as the most energizing and practical professional development of their careers.

While students can—and will!—use R.E.A.L.® Discussion skills in advisory; R.E.A.L.® Discussion can’t be taught there: these skills deserve to be taught, practiced, and assessed in a core academic class. 

Why? To describe this model, we often think about Computer Labs in the 90’s. Back then, schools recognized a set of high-transfer technological skills, like typing, that needed to be explicitly taught and designated time during the academic day to teach them. This meant investing in specific training for teachers and using expert-developed programs (e.g., Type-to-Learn) and benchmarks (e.g., Words Per Minute) to track student progress in life-changing tech skills. Once students developed proficiency, they took their typing skills everywhere: across the academic curriculum and in life beyond school. 

In today’s world, schools don’t need a Computer Lab, but we do believe they need a Conversation Lab: a protected space within the academic day to teach and assess face-to-face conversation skills explicitly. Since discussion skills are so important and they have academic value, they belong in English, History, and Social Studies classes first. Humanities classrooms are the natural home for this work. R.E.A.L.® equips students to engage with complex texts and perspectives, making it a natural fit.  If you start by teaching conversation explicitly, it will become second nature, and students will use these communication skills everywhere: advisory, assemblies, even the lunch table!

It depends on the path you design, but from a teacher’s perspective, they are equipped to implement R.E.A.L.® immediately after their Certification course (training includes unit integration plans and individual coaching sessions). It works best to implement R.E.A.L.® at the beginning of an academic year or semester. 

The next question we often get: How often does a teacher use R.E.A.L.® Discussion in their classroom? That also depends, but generally we see elementary teachers using R.E.A.L.® at least once a week, middle school teachers using R.E.A.L.® Discussion every 7-10 days, and high school teachers every 10-14 days. It can easily replace scheduled “Fishbowl” or “Socratic Seminar” discussions.

Absolutely. We regularly collaborate with organization leaders, network teams, and aligned partners who want to elevate communication in their context. Book a conversation and let’s talk about what’s possible.

Our Trainers

R.E.A.L.® PD is facilitated by Trainers: teachers and leaders who actually use R.E.A.L. ® in their schools. This makes PD authentic, fun, and by-teachers-for-teachers!

Patrick Farmer

Trainer

Sumner McCallie

Trainer

Kath Moriarty

Trainer

Peyten Williams

Trainer

Program Preview

R.E.A.L.® is a method for breaking the deeply human art of great discussion into teachable, assessable, transferable skills for students who would rather text than talk. R.E.A.L.® has programs for Gr. 2-10.

98%

of teachers would recommend R.E.A.L.® to a colleague

96%

of students see R.E.A.L.® skills as useful beyond the classroom

98%

of students report more confidence in speaking up in discussion

96%

of students listen more actively to their peers

94%

of students show a growth mindset towards discussion

5

The top five words teachers use to describe R.E.A.L.® PD :
Practical, Innovative, Fun/Funny, Motivating, Helpful

2023 Annual Report

Check out our 2023 Annual report to learn more about our trajectory and how R.E.A.L.® has helped visionary schools across the country ensure that all students feel heard and challenged in class discussion. The punchline? We are grateful for our partners’ pioneering spirit – and excited for what’s ahead. 

2023 Annual report

Stories from R.E.A.L.® Teachers

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“Breaking the mystery of discussion into teachable, learnable skills”

Patrick, Middle School Humanities

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“Democratizing the classroom in a beautiful way”

Pam, Upper School History

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“Game-changer for communication and community in my class”

Linda, Upper School History

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“I know my students – and they know each other – so much better”

Kay & Liz, Upper School Religion

More School stories