have real conversations.
In today’s world, that’s easier said than done.
We’re here to show you how.
Conversation is mission-critical for schools.
It’s at the heart of learning, wellbeing, belonging, and leadership. It’s how work gets done and relationships get built – in classrooms and conference rooms, on the field and the quad.
Yet, face-to-face communication is hard today – for students, teachers, and leaders alike. And in our tech-centric, polarized world, it’s not about to get easier.
At R.E.A.L.®, we empower school leaders to design a strategy for cultivating Conversation Culture on their campus. We start with the belief that discussion skills can – and must – be taught.
Together, we can:
Our School Partners
Our Story
It all started during second period. Yet another discussion fell flat – the same kids spoke up, sat back, eye-rolled, panicked – and Humanities teacher Liza Garonzik realized that the Gen-Z students in her class lacked the in-person communication skills they needed to talk and trust each other.
Liza knew that discussion skills are critical for learning and life – and wanted her students to thrive even as they grew up in a screen-bound, cancel-culture world. So she spent a decade working with experts, teachers, and Gen-Z students to develop R.E.A.L.®: the first research-backed method for explicitly teaching and equitably assessing in-person discussion skills.
Today, R.E.A.L.® has several programs for teaching discussion skills and ultimately building Conversation Culture, used by thousands of students, hundreds of teachers, and dozens of teams across diverse schools. The results speak for themselves.
We partner with visionary school leaders who see that “slowing down” to define a Conversation Culture strategy for their campus is the way to thrive in a tech-centric, polarized world. Want to start the convo? Reach out here!
Our Story
It all started during second period. Yet another discussion fell flat – the same kids spoke up, sat back, eye-rolled, panicked – and Humanities teacher Liza Garonzik realized that the Gen-Z students in her class lacked the in-person communication skills they needed to talk and trust each other.
Liza knew that discussion skills are critical for learning and life – and wanted her students to thrive even as they grew up in a screen-bound, cancel-culture world. So she spent a decade working with experts, teachers, and Gen-Z students to develop R.E.A.L.®: the first research-backed method for explicitly teaching and equitably assessing in-person discussion skills.
Today, R.E.A.L.® has several programs for teaching discussion skills and ultimately building Conversation Culture, used by thousands of students, hundreds of teachers, and dozens of teams across diverse schools. The results speak for themselves.
We partner with visionary school leaders who see that “slowing down” to define a Conversation Culture strategy for their campus is the way to thrive in a tech-centric, polarized world. Want to start the convo? Reach out here!
The R.E.A.L.® approach has been featured by:
PROGRAM PREVIEW
R.E.A.L.® Discussion For Humanities Classes
R.E.A.L.® Discussion is a method for explicitly teaching and equitably assessing in-person discussion skills within the context of a Humanities class.
It has been used by hundreds of teachers across independent schools.
The results speak for themselves.
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
