Collaborative Thought Through Dialogic Discussion: A Case Study of a Lower-Level English Class

• In Event: Instructional Paradigms in Humanities, Social Science, and Fine Arts Education

Abstract

This case study focused on the whole-class discussions of a ninth-grade class about To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960). I described the teacher's and students' participation which supported dialogic discussions. Dialogic discussions are un-scripted, open-ended, exploratory, collaborative conversations in which students create meaning. Discussions were recorded and transcribed; discourse analysis and grounded theory were used to analyze the data. Through examining the micro-interactions within a discussion that had both structured and dialogic aspects, this study poses an effective, engaging alternative or supplement to more predictable, teacher-centered talk about literature.

Author

• Wendy Keyser, University of Massachusetts - Amherst