Changing Task, Changing Talk: An Analysis of Student Talk in Whole-Class Discussions of Literary Texts

• In Event: Learning Context and Discourse

Abstract

This work examines two lessons implemented one year apart by the same 11th grade English teacher. The lessons occurred at the same time of year and were around the analysis of the same passage from a novel. However, the question the teacher asked and the way she structured the task differed and these differences yielded variations in the resulting talk among students. Our findings explore these variations in relation to the differences in the focus of the task and how the task was implemented in the different years. In addition, teacher-researcher retrospective reflections were used to corroborate and explicate the findings.

Authors

• Allison H. Hall, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Candice Burkett, University of Montana Western

• Susan R. Goldman, University of Illinois at Chicago