Toward a Theory of Teacher Community

This study examines the relationships between student literacy performance and discussion-based approaches to the development of understanding in 64 middle and high school English classrooms. A series of hierarchical linear models indicated that discussion-based approaches were significantly related to spring performance, controlling for fall performance and other background variables. These approaches were effective across a range of situations and for low-achieving as well as high-achieving students, although interpretations are complicated because instruction is unequally distributed across tracks. Overall, the results suggest that students whose classroom literacy experiences emphasize discussion-based approaches in the context of high academic demands internalize the knowledge and skills necessary to engage in challenging literacy tasks on their own.

Discussion-Based Approaches to Developing Understanding: Classroom Instruction and Student Performance in Middle and High School English

The role of classroom discussions in comprehension and learning has been the focus of investigations since the early 1960s. Despite this long history, no syntheses have quantitatively reviewed the vast body of literature on classroom discussions for their effects on students’ comprehension and learning. This comprehensive meta-analysis of empirical studies was conducted to examine evidence of the effects of classroom discussion on measures of teacher and student talk and on individual student comprehension and critical-thinking and reasoning outcomes. Results revealed that several discussion approaches produced strong increases in the amount of student talk and concomitant reductions in teacher talk, as well as substantial improvements in text comprehension. Few approaches to discussion were effective at increasing students’ literal or inferential comprehension and critical thinking and reasoning. Effects were moderated by study design, the nature of the outcome measure, and student academic ability. While the range of ages of participants in the reviewed studies was large, a majority of studies were conducted with students in 4th through 6th grades. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

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Examining the Effects of Classroom Discussion on Students' Comprehension of Text: A Meta-Analysis

Comprehension strategies are being taught in schools, with important similarities across some schools that are teaching them well. Strategy teaching typically occurs daily in these schools as part of group instruction. It is long term and complex since students are taught to coordinate traditional memory and comprehension strategies with interpretive processes. Consistent with both reader response theories and psychological theories, we refer to this approach as transactional strategies instruction: Student and teacher transactions with text are the heart of this form of instruction, with classroom discourse consisting of teachers providing support and guidance to students as they attempt to use strategies to learn regular elementary content. The limited evidence available suggests that this approach is effective and deserves research. Longitudinal experiments and quasi experiments are required, as are detailed descriptive analyses. There are many potential effects of transactional strategies instruction ...

Beyond Direct Explanation: Transactional Instruction of Reading Comprehension Strategies.

This theoretical review builds on the idea that social constructivism offers implications for reshaping schooling in ways that may correct the gap between the literacy achievement of students of diverse backgrounds and that of mainstream students. A diverse social con-structivist perspective may encourage literacy educators to progress from a mainstream orientation toward a serious consideration of the significance of students' ethnicity, primary language, and social class to literacy learning. From a social constructivistperspective, 5 explanations for the literacy achievement gap appear plausible: linguistic differences, cultural differences, discrimination, inferior education, and rationales for schooling. Incorporating these 5 explanations and building on the work of Cummins (1986, 1994), a conceptual framework for addressing the literacy achievement gap is proposed. This framework suggests that the school literacy learning of students of diverse backgrounds will be improved as educators address the g...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10862969809548000

Social Constructivism and the School Literacy Learning of Students of Diverse Backgrounds

This naturalistic study investigated what happened in liter- ature study groups composed of 5th and 6th grade students and led by teachers in training. Children chose the novel they would like to read and met with group leaders to discuss their reading (2 days per week, 30 minutes per day) over a 4-5 week period. Teachers were en- couraged to be fellow participants in the discussion groups rather than monitors of reading comprehension. Data were field notes, transcrip- tions of audiotapes of individual sessions, and teacher journals. An analysis of the data revealed that young children of varying abilities participated in rich discussions of works of literature in which they ap- peared to be capable of 1) articulating their construction of simple meaning, but also changing it as they heard alternate views; 2) sharing personal stories inspired by the reading or discussion, often in poign- ant and revealing ways which triggered identification by other group members; 3) participating as active readers - predicting and hypoth- esizing and confirming or disconfirming their predictions as they read; and 4) valuing and evaluating the text as literature. The title of this piece comes from a remark Jim Higgins made to a group of teachers when he was at Arizona State University as a visiting scholar in the spring of 1985. He was describing how literature is used in American classrooms and he said something like "what you most often get are gentle inquisitions, when what you really want are grand conversations." Bryant Fillion (1981) echoed this theme with his remark that when he listened to tapes of literature classes - his own as well as others - he was struck by how often they sounded like inquisitions rather than real discussions. Almost all of children's experiences with literature in elementary schools today are in this inquisition mode. All popular basal series provide students with readers containing stories (many excerpted from fine liter- ature), and teachers with questions (and accompanying answers) to ask about those stories. Children gather together in groups to discuss the story, but the discussion usually consists of the teacher asking the ques-

Maryann Eeds

Papers

Grand Conversations: An Exploration of Meaning Construction in Literature Study Groups

Talking, Thinking, and Cooperative Learning: Lessons Learned from Listening to Children Talk about Books.