The key article of the February 2024 issue of Literacy Learning: the Middle Years, authored by Christine Edwards-Groves, emphasises that carefully orchestrated classroom talk between teachers and students can leverage engagement and can also hold the potential for increased academic learning. Edwards-Groves describes a form of teacher/student interaction called dialogic talk and provides detailed empirical accounts of how a classroom teacher and her Year 4 students enact a series of self-regulated dialogic talk moves as they discuss the topic of Anzac Day. Her research confirms that high-quality dialogic talk practices can be learnt, and students can take responsibility for managing interactive talk episodes and, ultimately, contribute to their own learning