Discussion Pathways to Literacy Learning , livre ebook

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) - Elizabeth A. Kahn , Thomas M. McCann

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91 pages

English

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Discussion Pathways to Literacy Learning examines the function of classroom discussion as an essential element in inquiry and literacy learning.

McCann, Kahn, and Walter provide examples of classroom discussion activities that have been part of an ongoing partnership between university professors and high school English teachers. The book draws on their research into the effect of discussion on literacy learning and offers examples of activities and guidelines for activities that teachers can use in their own practice. Beyond demonstrating the strong impact that authentic discussions have on learning, the authors show how participation in discussions can be pleasurable and meaningful experiences for adolescents, especially when then can choose the focus for their shared inquiry.

Sujets

Disciplines

Language Arts

Literacy

Informations

Publié par	National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
Date de parution	13 octobre 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780814100479
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Discussion Pathways to Literacy Learning
NCTE Editorial Board

Steven Bickmore
Catherine Compton-Lilly
Deborah Dean
Antero Garcia
Bruce McComiskey
Jennifer Ochoa
Staci M. Perryman-Clark
Anne Elrod Whitney
Vivian Yenika-Agbaw
Kurt Austin, Chair, ex officio
Emily Kirkpatrick, ex officio

Staff Editor: Bonny Graham
Manuscript Editor: Josh Rosenberg
Interior Design: Jenny Jensen Greenleaf
Cover Design: Pat Mayer
NCTE Stock Number: 12113; eStock Number: 12120 ISBN 978-0-8141-1211-3; eISBN 978-0-8141-1212-0
©2018 by the National Council of Teachers of English.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright holder. Printed in the United States of America.
It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified.
NCTE provides equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all staff members and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, physical, mental or perceived handicap/disability, sexual orientation including gender identity or expression, ancestry, genetic information, marital status, military status, unfavorable discharge from military service, pregnancy, citizenship status, personal appearance, matriculation or political affiliation, or any other protected status under applicable federal, state, and local laws.
Every effort has been made to provide current URLs and email addresses, but because of the rapidly changing nature of the Web, some sites and addresses may no longer be accessible.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McCann, Thomas M., author. | Kahn, Elizabeth A., author. | Walter, Carolyn Calhoun, author.
Title: Discussion pathways to literacy learning / Thomas M. McCann, Elizabeth A. Kahn, and Carolyn C. Walter.
Description: Urbana, Illinois : National Council of Teachers of English, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018029961 (print) | LCCN 2018050468 (ebook) | ISBN 9780814112120 (ebook) | ISBN 9780814112113 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780814112120 (ebk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Language arts (Secondary) | English language—Study and teaching (Secondary) | College-school cooperation.
Classification: LCC LB1631 (ebook) | LCC LB1631.M275 2018 (print) | DDC 428.4071/2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018029961
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FOREWORD
Michael W. Smith
CHAPTER 1 Let's Talk about Talk in the Classroom
CHAPTER 2 Finding Pleasures in Literacy Learning
CHAPTER 3 Teachers and Students in Action Factors That Account for Engagement and Production
CHAPTER 4 The Processes of Planning for Discussion A Close Look at Teachers, Learners, and Activities
CHAPTER 5 The Complex of Teacher Moves, across the Year and in the Moment
CHAPTER 6 The Follow-Through Coherence, Sustained Inquiry, and Flexibility
CHAPTER 7 What Teachers Need to Know about Discussion
APPENDIX A Survey of Student Interest
APPENDIX B Examining “White Privilege” in High School Classes
APPENDIX C Coding System
REFERENCES
INDEX
AUTHORS
Acknowledgments
W e were able to produce this book only because teachers generously invited us into their classrooms and took time to talk to us about how they do what they do. We are indebted to these admirable colleagues. We are also grateful to the students and their parents for allowing us to record students’ classroom discussion and to share with readers some of what they said and wrote. We have protected the identities of the teachers and students whose voices we represent in the book, but we hope nevertheless that they will recognize this acknowledgment as our sincere expression of gratitude.
We also express our gratitude to Northern Illinois University graduate students who served as research assistants for this project. We are especially indebted to Yaqing Cao for transcribing recordings, for assisting in developing and testing a coding system, and for training others to apply the codes to transcribed discussions. We appreciate the efforts of Floyd Knight and Barbara Alvarez in coding transcripts and preparing data for our analysis. We could not have undertaken the research for this book without the assistance of Yaqing, Floyd, and Barbara.
Leaders in the Department of English at Northern Illinois University have supported our research endeavors and have provided the resources necessary for undertaking the recording, transcribing, and analyzing of classroom discussions. We are especially grateful to Lara Crowley, Phil Eubanks, Amy Levin, Bradley Peters, Kathleen Renk, Jessica Reyman, and Mark Van Wienen.
Beyond the high school teachers on whom we focus attention for this book, we acknowledge the benefits of the many opportunities we have had to consult with teachers about the work they do to promote a dialogic classroom. We are especially grateful to Dawn Forde, Joe Flanagan, Andy Bouque, Nicole Boudreau Smith, June Hockison, Barbara Chidley, Greg Lundberg, and Tamara Jaffe Notier.
Students in the Teacher Licensure Program in the Department of English at Northern Illinois University developed some of the problem-based cases discussed in this book. We appreciate the efforts of our students as they sought to discover what problems resonate with adolescents and what forums invited engaged participation in discussion.
We are grateful to Michael W. Smith for his foreword. As usual, Michael's writing is insightful, touching, and generous. We also appreciate the ongoing conversations we have had with friends and colleagues about the themes and research protocols for this book. We always benefit from our conversation with our old friend Peter Smagorinsky and with our university colleagues John V. Knapp, Judy Pokorny Laura Bird, Jeff Levin, and Marilee Halpin. We appreciate also the support of Pam McCann and Katie Carlson as they listened patiently to descriptions of plans and our reactions to discoveries.
We appreciate the dedicated work of Kurt Austin and Bonny Graham at NCTE, and the other contributors to the production process, including copy editor Joshua Rosenberg.
Foreword
M ICHAEL W. S MITH T EMPLE U NIVERSITY
A story to start. When my niece Kelsy, my mom's oldest grandchild, was three or so, she went to Sunday school for the first time. As one might expect, she was very excited to be going, and indeed that excitement was evident when she invited my mom on the afternoon of her very first day of class to come over to play school. Of course, my mom could hardly say no, so off she went. Kelsy had everything waiting for her in the living room, having set up a chair right in front of Kelsy's chalkboard.
“Have a seat, everyone,” Kelsy said, so my mom sat down. Kelsy got down to business right away: “Now, Grandma, can you tell me the first book of the Bible?”
My mom, no biblical scholar, replied, “Exodus.”
“WRONG!” Kelsy shouted. “It's Genesis.”
This little story has been the stuff of legends in my family for what it says about Kelsy's precocity. But when I look back on it now, I think it's more telling for what it says about school. You see, Kelsy had been to school for little more than an hour and she already knew that what teachers do is ask their students fact-based questions that students often get wrong so teachers have to correct them.
Kelsy's playacting with my mom demonstrates why the project McCann, Kahn, and Walter take up in this book is so very important. A wealth of research clearly establishes that classrooms in general and English classrooms in particular are much more apt to be characterized by Kelsy-like recitations than they are by the kind of generative conversations that the authors share with us throughout the book. A wealth of research also establishes that those kinds of generative conversations have far-reaching benefits for students.
But knowing the problem doesn't mean it's easily solved. Another story. Not long after I got my PhD, I had the privilege of serving as a research assistant on Arthur Applebee's (1989) study of the teaching of literature in programs with reputations for excellence. One of my tasks was to take a log of class activities in the classes I observed. Though I did the work thirty years ago, I will never forget one of my observations, a whole-class discussion of A Tale of Two Cities. The teacher clearly loved the book and was trying to communicate that love to his students. He fired off question after question and students offered brief replies. Sometimes in his enthusiasm he interrupted his students before they finished those brief replies so he could make a point. I estimated that he spoke about 95 percent of the words during the class. After class was over, I asked one of the questions on the interview protocol, something like this: “How does what I saw today compare to your typical class?” His response: “We have this kind of scintillating conversation nearly every day.”
That teacher could not have been more dedicated. He could not have known and cared about his content any more deeply. But he also couldn't have mischaracterized his class any more completely. And he's not alone. Indeed, even teachers who are committed to classroom discourse that resembles a “jam session” (Marshall, Smagorinsky, & Smith, 1995, p. 19) are undone by their concern that their discussions “get somewhere,” typically to some kind of shared interpretative understanding.
Moreover, Kamil and his colleagues (2008) speculate that teachers may not have th