Cathy Ryan
RE 5140
12/6/10
Discussion of Literature in the Classroom
When stories read in school or at home are accompanied by a discussion, readers andlisteners can share their ideas and negotiate meanings with each other. These discussionsprovide opportunities to generate understanding in a community of readers and help readersmake sense of the stories they hear. Literature discussions at home and in school extendunderstanding, clarify misconceptions, and provide young readers with the supportnecessary for better comprehension.When students can discuss literature with others, there is opportunity to develop the types of cognitive processing that when internalized is engaged reading. Classroom cultures that provide for student interaction and teacher modeling of cognitive processes promote the notion of reading as a transactional process where meaning occurs as a reader’s expectations and experiences are in transaction with the text. There are several instructional strategies that can be used to incorporate discussion of literature in the classroom including; Read aloud – Think aloud, Literature Circles, and ReciprocalTeaching Strategies (RTS). A number of recent reading studies have indicated that social collaboration promotes achievement, higher level cognition, and intrinsic desire to read.
A Read aloud is a planned oral reading of a book or print excerpt, usually related to a theme or topic of study. The Read aloud can be used to engage the student listener while developing background knowledge, increasing comprehension skills, and fostering critical thinking. A Read aloud can be used to model the use of reading strategies that aid in comprehension. Students build listening and comprehension skills through discussion during and after reading. Students increase their vocabulary foundation by hearing words in context. Students improve their memory and language skills as they hear a variety of writing styles and summarize their understanding. Students gain information about the world around them. Students develop individual interests in a broad variety of subjects and they develop imagination and creativity; thus Read aloud – Think aloud is a great way to build skills that foster inquiry. When using a Read aloud – Think aloud teachers should inspire questions and investigations by modeling curiosity and question-posing. The teacher needs to let the students in on the 'secret' of how you, the teacher, construct questions. The teacher needs to explicitly share thinking processes. Thinking aloud is making thinking public. For example during a Read aloud – Think aloud in my classroom I may ask,"I wonder what the author means when she says ....?", or “I wonder how (the main character) is feeling?”, or “I can’t wait to find out what happens next!”
When selecting a book for a Read aloud – Think aloud teachers should take a variety of factors into consideration including; selecting an appropriate book based on a specific reading purpose: concept background, exploring author's craft, introduction of key vocabulary, or some other clearly defined purpose. Set a purpose for listening by sharing the reason you selected the book. The book should lend itself with opportunities for stopping points to wonder aloud? In addition, teachers might locate relevant artifacts, illustrations or other hands-on materials that might support the text and foster student questions. Some other factors to consider when using a Read aloud – Think aloud are pacing your reading to allow time for the students to think about what they are hearing. Also, read with expression; create a mood. Alter your voice to reflect emotions and emphasize key points. Give young students an opportunity to add to the story with appropriate noises. For example, when I am reading a book about the rain in the tropical rain forest I might have my students use their fingers to drum out the sound of soft or hard rain. Pantaleo (2007) explains, teachers need to select materials and design thoughtful and engaging activities that provide opportunities for children to use language for multiple purposes. As teachers we need to help learners developways of using language as a social mode of thinking.
Literature Circles look different in every classroom; they change from teacher to teacher, grade to grade, student to student. Literature Circles have no recipe, they are not a specific "program", and they never look the same from year to year -- or even from day to day. Collaboration is at the heart of this approach. Discussions can be one of the most challenging aspects of Literature Circles. With guidance, however, students at all levels can learn to carry on meaningful and rich conversations about books. Many teachers use role sheets – but others find that the roles take focus and energy away from the discussion. By teaching strategies through focus lessons, students can choose whether to share a passage, an illustration, or a question. Students can learn collaborative and individual accountability strategies to make their discussions work without the constraints of role sheets.
In Literature Circles, small groups of students gather together to discuss a piece of literature in depth. The discussion is guided by students' response to what they have read. You may hear talk about events and characters in the book, the author's craft, or personal experiences related to the story. Literature Circles provide a way for students to engage in critical thinking and reflection as they read, discuss, and respond to books. Students reshape and add onto their understanding as they construct meaning with other readers. The primary goal of these circles is to encourage students to become critical thinkers. According to Short (1995), when students participate in Literature Circles, students read independently and "think collaboratively". Short goes on to argue that one of the gravest shortcomings of school reading programs is that assignments, choices, and texts to read, are usually all controlled by the teacher. In the classroom, teachers who really want to meet the need for genuine choice and self-direction must provide two kinds of independent reading: time for individuals, through structures like sustained silent reading (SSR) and reading workshop; and time for independent reading in groups, when kids select, read, and discuss books together, as in Literature Circles. Literature Circles combine the best practices of collaborative learning and student-directed learning. They can be used at all grade levels (elementary through secondary) and ability levels, and are often credited with instilling a love of reading and discussion with students. According to Fall (2000), current research indicates that peer collaboration has a positive effect on student learning and performance in Language Arts, increases student learning, and also improves reading comprehension and content-knowledge. This approach to reading and learning looks to some of the best practices and theory from Collaborative Learning and Scaffolding Theory. As well, Reader-Response Criticism, Independent Reading, and Student-Centered Learning also comprise most of the theoretical underpinning of Literature Circles.
Year, after year, I have been privy of the knowledge that the upper grades at my school (especially third grade) were concerned that second grade teachers were not adequately focusing on teaching instruction of expository text. As a second grade teacher, I knew this conception was not accurate. I knew for a fact that the second grade team of teachers have spent hours upon hours instructing students in reading strategies for expository text; however, I was also aware of the fact that even though our team of teachers have spent numerous hours and tried new approaches at this type of instruction, it was a discerning fact that when it came time to test a student’s comprehension on an expository text their reading level most often seemed to fall short of their reading level on a narrative text. After reading about and watching some videos on the Reciprocal Teaching strategies, in another of my college classes, I sensed that the RT strategies, when taught systematically in the precise structure that RT indicates, might just be something worth trying. My judgment was not to appease the upper grades or eradicate their conception, but more basically as a teacher, I decided, as teachers often do, to try yet another new approach to encourage my students to find deeper understanding in what they read, internalize some strategies that would support their comprehension, and hopefully allow them to become readers that enjoy the experience of reading for content knowledge. I was not overwhelming apprehensive with trying to get my second grade students to try and pass a grade level expository text retell, but more precisely, I wanted to see if using the RT strategies would make a difference in how the students were able to respond to an expository text, and to see if their level of comprehension showed noteworthy progress.
Palincsar and Brown (1984) elucidate that Reciprocal Teaching can be used as a technique to develop comprehension of expository text in which teacher and students take turns leading a dialogue concerning sections of a text. The RT procedure was designed to improve the reading comprehension ability of students who were adequate decoders but had poor comprehension (Palincsar & Brown, 1984). Four activities are incorporated into the technique: prediction, questioning, summarizing and clarifying misleading or complex sections of the text.Effective Reciprocal Teaching lessons include scaffolding, thinking aloud, using cooperative learning, and facilitating metacognition with each step. Each strategy is taught by the teacher and is clearly understood by students before they go on to the next strategy (Hashey & Connors, 2003). Procedures are first modeled by the teacher. Then they are practiced and coached with peer and teacher feedback. Finally, the leadership of the group work strategy is handed over to the students (Allen, 2003).
As a result of using the four Reciprocal Teaching strategies, I have observed my students obtain growth in their reading comprehension skills. Students became engaged as they searched for information to verify or reject their hypotheses, as they connected background knowledge to new information presented in the text, and as they attempted to piece together information to make predictions and hypotheses. Students are more highly engaged in the literary act when provided with the opportunity to respond to and challenge each others’ interpretations, challenge the author’s style, share their opinions about the text, and question the meaning of the text. I have observed them become more confident readers somewhat in part due to the use of these Reciprocal Teaching strategies , but also somewhat in part due to helping them to determine that their failure to comprehend a text may not always be a direct result of their inability to comprehend. Motivation to read can factor into a student’s learning – especially a struggling student who may be anxious about reading. Reciprocal Teaching can help to enhance a student’s motivation to read by helping the student to be aware of the kinds of things that influence learning. I feel it is important to note here that I believe there are other contributing factors; such as poorly organized text, which could interfere with a student’s ability to adequately comprehend, resulting in a breakdown that I sense may not be their fault. A. Palincsar (personal communication, October 25, 2009) I would be delighted to learn more about your experiences and your student’s progress over time! I think that clarifying is particularly empowering, as students become more metacognitive regarding their challenges and also become more self-regulating; they also come to appreciate the broad range of reasons why text can be confusing! (and it is NOT all their fault).
Recent research has found that student performance improved when teachers used a combination of authentic questions (i.e., questions designed to help students explore new understandings), open discussion and whole-class discourse, and teacher scaffolding based on student discussions (i.e., teacher questioning that builds on previous student statements). Teachers can use discussion as a tool to expand students’ “envisionment” (understanding of a text) by viewing all students as capable of positively contributing to classroom discussion; using discussion to expand, rather than evaluate understanding; viewing student questions as a component of the learning process, not as an indication of a failure to learn; and helping students examine multiple perspectives, rather than reach a consensus interpretation. Past research also indicates that successful teachers use “curricular conversations” (ongoing conversations that trace curricular themes across lessons) to provide students with an expanding framework on which to build meaning and understanding. Working with literature in this way is exciting and stimulating. I never fail to marvel at the wonderful envisionments students have formed. Many times I have discovered a new way to look at a piece I thought I understood thoroughly.
References
Pantaleo. S. Interthinking: Young Children Using Language to Think
Collectively During Interactive Read-alouds; Early Childhood Education Journal, Vol. 34, No. 6, June, 2007.
(2010, October 9).
Short, K. (Ed.). (1995). Research and professional resources in children's literature. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Fall, R. (2000). Group discussion and large-scale language arts assessment: Effects on students' comprehension. American Educational Research Journal , Vol. 37(4), 911-942.
Palincsar, A. S., & Brown, A. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1(2), 117-175.
Hashey, J. M, & Connors, D. J. (2003). Learn from our journey: Reciprocal teaching action research. Reading Teacher, 57(3), 224-233.
Allen, S. (2003). An analytic comparison of three models of reading strategy instruction. IRAL: International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching. 41(4), 319-339.
Palincsar, A. . Your experience with RT [Personal email]. (2009, October 25).
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