Literature Discussion Groups Research Articles

Examining silenc(ing) in literature discussion groups

Though researchers have documented literature discussion groups and the importance of accountable/academic talk, fewer studies have examined how students and ideas have been silenced in small autonomous groups. This case study draws on a sociocultural perspective and dialogic participation in these spaces as sites of knowledge generation. Our study investigated the question, “What factors may contribute to the silencing of students and ideas in autonomous literature groups?” Focusing on a sixth grade class of 21 students (11 boys and 10 girls) in a private school, we gathered a variety of data: formal and informal interviews from Nora (the teacher) and her students; recorded transcripts of discussion groups; field notes from classroom observations; selected student and teacher journal entries; artifacts from Nora's professional presentations and information shared with parents; and, think alouds and member checks from Nora.Findings indicated that there were multiple factors that might contribute to silencing: those related to the teacher's discourse routines and instructional scaffolding decisions and those related to the students’ academic and social histories, including classroom gender norms and social hierarchies. More importantly, these factors were in transaction with one another, which affected the strength of the factors. For example, the turn-taking norm advocated by the teacher, was intended to ensure that all participants had access to the floor. However, this norm also functioned to silence topics or individuals. Students focused on the norm rather than on exploration of ideas, sharing journal entries in a pro forma fashion. Students who moved to follow this norm sometimes interrupted discussion of another student's ideas in order to make time for all to share. Other students cited this norm when attempting to hold the floor or to avoid a complex conversation. Some students seemed to use this norm to privilege certain voices over others. The complexity of the transaction of factors offers a more nuanced understanding of how silencing occurs. Teachers and researchers, leaning into this complexity, may be better equipped to help students recognize and disrupt such silencing.

Entry points and trajectories: Teachers learning and doing translanguaging pedagogy

AbstractThis qualitative study investigated seven teachers participating in a professional development (PD) series on translanguaging pedagogies. The purpose was to better understand how teachers adapted translanguaging strategies into their classroom practice and how they perceived challenges and benefits of these approaches. Analysis of PD videos, interviews, and artifacts revealed teachers enacted a range of strategies from spontaneous to meticulously planned translingual scaffolding. The researchers explore two strategies in detail—multilingual word walls and literature discussion groups—with implications for teacher learning of translanguaging pedagogies. Reported benefits included student engagement and collaboration, and expansion of teachers’ knowledge about students. Reported challenges included integrating translanguaging strategies into established routines, responding to a range of languages and language proficiencies, and negotiating administrative pressure to focus on other priorities. The study builds on these findings to develop notions of entry points and trajectories. Entry point strategies not only create opportunities for students to use their full linguistic repertoires during instruction, but help teachers think more deeply about students’ multilingualism and the relationships between academic English and students’ specific home and community languages. Trajectories describe how translanguaging practice develops from early attempts at enacting specific strategies to robust commitments to translanguaging praxis.

Ethnography of Literature Discussion Group Supporting Critical Thinking Disposition

Ethnography of Literature Discussion Group Supporting Critical Thinking Disposition

“Sites of control and resistance”: outlaw emotions in an out-of-school book club

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how three young women of color responded with “outlaw emotions” to the novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz in a literature discussion group. This paper considers how readers respond with outlaw emotions and how responses showed emotions as sites of control and resistance. The aim of this paper is to help English language arts (ELA) teachers construct culturally sustaining literature classrooms through an encouragement of outlaw emotions.Design/methodology/approachTo examine how youth responded with emotion to Aristotle and Dante, the author used humanizing and ethnographic research methodologies and conducted a thematic analysis of meeting transcripts, journal entries from youth and researcher memos.FindingsAnalyses indicated that youth responded with outlaw emotions to Aristotle and Dante, and these responses showed how youth have both resisted and been controlled by structures of power. Youth responses of supposed “positive” or “negative” emotion were sites of control and resistance, particularly within their educational experiences. Youth engaged as a peer group to encourage and validate outlaw emotions and indirectly critiqued emotion as control.Originality/valueAlthough many scholars have demonstrated the positive effects of out-of-school book clubs, there is scant research regarding how youth respond to culturally diverse literature with emotion, both outlaw and otherwise. Analyzing our own and characters’ outlaw emotions may help ELA educators and students deconstruct dominant ideologies about power, language and identity. This study, which demonstrates how youth responded with outlaw emotions and gave evidence of emotions as control and resistance, shows how ELA classrooms might encourage outlaw emotions as literary response. These findings suggest that ELA classrooms attempting culturally sustaining pedagogies might center youth emotion in responding to literature to critique power structures across the self, schools and society.

Scaffolding and Inequitable Participation in Linguistically Diverse Book Clubs

AbstractThe authors illustrate ways that diverse linguistic repertoires were constrained within a set of classroom book club discussions among sixth‐grade students and their teachers in a public school setting. The study took place in a U.S. Mountain West middle school with a majority population of Latinx students, many of whom were emerging bilinguals (EBs). In these book clubs, 21 students and two teachers read one of four mystery novels. The groups comprised both native and nonnative English‐speaking students and were grouped according to reading ability/level. Using discourse analysis strategies, the researchers analyzed the participants’ talk across the book club discussions. The authors found that although a primary purpose of a literature discussion group is to provide more equitable participatory opportunities forEBs, in this case, the linguistic and discursive practices of the teachers and the native English speakers did not fully honorEBs’ contributions. These practices led toEBs’ ultimate withdrawal from discussions. Therefore, the implications suggest a cautionary tale for educators working withEBs to critically analyze and identify ways in which generic methods for English as a second language and “good” teaching practices may positionEBs as incapable. Moreover, the authors suggest that teachers should develop more critical linguistically and culturally responsive practices that acknowledge the linguistic repertoires ofEBs and (re)positionEBs as communicatively competent.

Developing Marine and Fisheries Industry in Pangandaran Following a Bioecoregion-Based Technopark Framework

<p>From the bioecoregional point of view, the Pangandaran Regency is a land-water-mass with a strong ecological connectivity, and which also is chareacterized by the dominance of marine and fisheries resource potentials. In this region, a number of development variables exists and are available for transforming these natural resources into an advanced industry, which can sustain the region’s economy. Recognizing such a premise, this research aims at analyzing those variables in more detail, as associated with efforts to accellerate the establishment of a strong economy which is supported by a marine and fisheries industry in Pangandaran. The technopark concept is taken as the main reference for the industry to be developed while the gap analysis is taken as the research’s primary methodological approach. Primary and secondary data collected through literature study, discussion, consultation, field visits, and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) are used to carry out the gap analysis, which is then followed up by the SWOT analysis. Based on the research, it can be concluded that the existing bioecoregional setting as well as the available development variables are conducive to facilitate development of a marine and fisheries technopark as long as a number of improvement are carried out. A proposal to operationalize such improvements as suggested by the result of this research is demonstrated in a roadmap as presented in the final section of this paper.</p>

Are Greeks’ Unconcerned about Ethical Market Choices?"

An Ethical Unconcern (EthU) scale was constructed and its impact on Positive Ethical Consumption was examined. The procedure of EthU included literature search, brainstorming and discussion groups to generate the preliminary pool of 99 items, refinement of the scale via a students’ survey by the employment of item-to-total correlation and alpha-if-item deleted techniques. The initial scale was tested in a consumer survey conducted in the urban area of Thessaloniki, Greece. Item-to-total correlation and alpha-if-item deleted techniques were applied again, followed by Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) by the employment of PCA. The procedure left 21 items in five factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 explaining 61.34% of the variance. The five factors were named Boycott/ Discursive, Fair-Trade, Scepticism, Powerlessness and Ineffectiveness. The AMOS SPSS was then used to conduct confirmatory factor analysis. Goodness-of-fit results indicated that the measurement model fit the data well (χ2=594.226, p<0.000, CFI=0.926, NFI=0.899, TLI=0.910, RMSEA=0.066). The examination of the Positive Ethical Consumption indicated rare to occasional ethical buying choices among Greek consumers. The inhibiting role of Ethical Unconcern on Positive Ethical Consumption was found to be rather low.

A Mother-Daughter Book Club: A Search for Intimacy

This study examines the nature of group interaction and response to texts in an African American, mother-daughter literature discussion group in a predominately White, Midwestern college town. The implications of this research for teachers and librarians include a discussion about the value of community and intergenerational literacy and adolescents’ need to share literacy events with adults from their own racialized group.

Introduction Promoting the Study of Modern Literatures Worldwide: The MLA and Its Conventions

Introduction Promoting the Study of Modern Literatures Worldwide: The MLA and Its Conventions

“Dude, it's not a appropriate word”: Negotiating word meanings, language ideologies, and identities in a literature discussion group

This study explored how ideologies of language and literacy and social and academic identities were constructed and contested during a literature discussion. In the event, a group of five (and later six) boys in a fourth grade bilingual classroom attempt to identify an unknown word in their novel: booger. Microethnographic discourse analysis and analyses of participants’ movements across the classroom were conducted, and interpretations were informed by spatializing theories of social practice and identities. Findings illustrate how the students’ and teacher's physical and discursive moves involved the negotiation of multiple ideologies of language learning. Findings suggest the need for a deeper understanding of the micro-level processes in which academic and social identities and learning opportunities for students are forged.

Analyzing Talk in a Long‐Term Literature Discussion Group: Ways of Operating Within LGBT‐Inclusive and Queer Discourses

Analyzing Talk in a Long‐Term Literature Discussion Group: Ways of Operating Within LGBT‐Inclusive and Queer Discourses

Translating Topics in SCI Psychology Into theInternational Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health

Psychology is an important building block in the rehabilitation of people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Various disciplines in rehabilitation have started to use the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) for communication, management, documentation, and assessment purposes. However, SCI psychologists do not yet systematically implement the ICF. The study identified topics, aims, and outcomes in SCI psychology and examined whether these can be translated into the coding system of the ICF. A systematic literature review and discussion groups with SCI psychologists were conducted. Variables measured in 197 studies and concepts named in 3 discussion groups with 44 psychologists from 12 countries were coded. Eighty-five percent of 2,026 identified concepts could be expressed using ICF codes. Most frequently used ICF categories were d240 Handling stress and other psychological demands, b152 Emotional functions, and e3 Support and relationships. For concepts within the ICF com...

What Language Counts in Literature Discussion? Exploring Linguistic Mediation in an English Language Arts Classroom

As classrooms across the U.S. are becoming increasingly more multilingual and multicultural, there is a need for research that provides insight into literacy instruction that builds on students' linguistic knowledge. The qualitative study of a fourth-grade dual-language classroom examined the ways that peer mediation in Spanish and English impacted participation in literature discussion groups. The study findings indicated that in the discussion groups students developed forms of linguistic mediation, enabling them to take risks in using their language of lesser proficiency, and promote a higher level of engagement of members within the discussion groups. Literacy instruction that engages students in negotiating multiple languages and language forms enables bilingual students to demonstrate the depth of their communicative and linguistic knowledge, increases participation of all students, and challenges the hegemony of English.

Getting “Real” in Virtual Talk about Text

What is REAL? asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and stickout handle? Real isn't how you are made, said the Skin Horse. It's thing that happens to you. (Williams, 1922/1991, p. 5) For the middle school students in Virtual Reading Group (VRG), it was easy to see their virtual discussion peers and their virtual teacher; all participants appeared simultaneously on screen, with separate box for each participating site. But just as the toys in The Velveteen Rabbit (Williams, 1922/1991) did not become real simply because they looked real or functioned in technological buzz, the on-screen others did not automatically become real to students in the VRG simply because they appeared on display. We offer an account of how the realness of virtual others was constructed by participants in sixth grade text discussion group conducted via videoconference. We are not, of course, implying that students somehow thought on-screen others were imaginary. Our realness refers to another quality, developed to extend Nystrand and Gamoran's (1991) definition of substantive engagement: a sustained personal commitment to understanding the world of story or poem as well as literary or other issues raised by the work itself (p. 262). However, they primarily consider engagement an intellectual endeavor, relationship with content. We find this concept valuable for many reasons, but in our take on realness, we emphasize different angle. We argue that seeing the other as real is characterized by sustained individual commitment to establishing personal and/or intellectual relationship with that other. This shifts the emphasis from the cleanly academic into murkier social realm. Middle school students (like adults) may be more invested in securing response from certain people than from others. Of course, we are not trying to idealize the relationships children strive toward; these are often fraught with ambiguity or even hostility (see Finders, 1997). A literature discussion group, thus, depends not just on how students respond to the text, but on how they come to see various others as real human beings with whom it is worth engaging. Why discussion? Why virtually? We believe that encountering multiple perspectives on text through discussion with peers can be valuable, particularly for middle school students. Eeds and Wells (1989), in their work on literature discussion groups, were among the first to explore the benefits of engaging students in grand conversations rather than gentle inquisitions; the pedagogy woven through the VRG builds on this tradition, where the emphasis is not on predetermined concepts but on collaborative meaning-making. The teacher does not evaluate student responses; instead, students share in the evaluation of each other's takes on the text (Aukerman, 2007). This is by no means pedagogical free-for-all; the nuanced task of the teacher involves supporting students so they can become more accountable to the text and to each other. And we have previously found that this general orientation toward teaching, which we call shared evaluation pedagogy (SHEP), holds promise: McCallum, Martin, and Aukerman (2003) found that fifth grade students receiving twice-weekly (non-virtual) SHEP instruction averaged about one and half times as much assessed growth in reading comprehension as control group students. The model for this particular virtual discussion program builds on body of work related to using information communications technology (ICT) to foster the literacy abilities of middle school students.1 There is growing recognition among middle grades educators that integrating technology into literacy instruction is important in today's highly technological and globalized world. Although there is still only limited high-quality evidence documenting the learning benefits of ICT on the reading abilities of middle school students (Pearson, Ferdig, Blomeyer, Sc Moran, 2005), schools and districts are beginning to develop wide range of technologymediated activities to answer the need for middle school students to develop literacy through technology (Sternberg, Kaplan, & Borck, 2007). …

The Nature and Influence of Comprehension Strategy Use During Peer-Led Literature Discussions: An Analysis of Intermediate Grade Students' Practice

This article reports an analysis of fifth-graders' comprehension strategy use, as it occurred within peer-led literature discussion groups, and the influence of such strategy use on students' post-discussion gains in story comprehension. Data collection occurred across nine weeks. Data sources included transcripts of discussions, transcripts of pre- and post-discussion retellings of stories, and field notes. The analysis revealed (a) the most commonly employed strategies during discussions were questioning, evaluating, and interpreting; (b) there were no differences in the general patterns of strategy employment during discussions among students with different reading abilities; (c) the quality of students' strategic employment varied; and (d) the specific content of better reading students' strategic contributions during discussions influenced group members' post-discussion comprehension more than those of less able readers.

Reading Girls: Living Literate and Powerful Lives

In this qualitative study, the authors merge two bodies of previously separated scholarship: (1) a socio-cultural understanding of adolescent girls in light of the shifting meaning of ideal girlhood, and (2) the participation and success of adolescent girls in school-based literacy activities. They apply these fields of inquiry to explore the following questions: (1) What does it mean to be a young woman/girl in middle school? (2) What does it mean to be a young woman/girl reader in middle school? (3) What does it mean to be a young woman/girl in literacy circles and discussion groups? To answer these questions, the authors collected observational and interview data in two classrooms (one grade 6 and one grade 8) from January to June. From the analysis of the data, the authors identify profiles that typify the girls with whom they interacted, capture the girls’ roles during literature discussion groups and other classroom events, and frame the influence of teachers’ actions on the girls.

Story Discussion in the Primary Grades: Balancing Authenticity and Explicit Teaching

Literature discussion groups have become a popular instructional alternative to traditional reading groups. Yet, literature discussion does not happen naturally in the classroom, and some teachers find it particularly difficult to implement with primary‐grade students.This article explores how two teachers used a balance of explicit teaching and techniques of authentic dialogue to help students participate in meaningful discussions of literature. The teachers began by emphasizing telling, defining, and modeling at the beginnings of their lessons—moves that appeared to be critical to students' eventual participation. Gradually, the teachers lessened their scaffolding, allowing students to lead more of the discussion. Within an atmosphere of respect for students, shown by much student choice and decision making, literature discussion became more successful.

“Do I have to say it?” Critical Encounters with Multicultural Children's Literature

The article details the transformation of one literature discussion group reading the story, Felita, by Nicholosa Mohr. The research study documented the process of implementing literature discussion groups with multicultural children’s literature in a fourth grade English language arts classroom. Through a discussion of a critical incident in the story, the authors illustrate how multicultural literature can provide readers with opportunities to examine personal beliefs and societal realities. The article brings to light the powerful conversations that arise when students read multicultural children’s literature that resonates with them.

It “Ain’t” Always So: Sixth Graders’ Interpretations of Hispanic-American Stories with Universal Themes

This article examines the responses of eight sixth grade students discussing four realistic fiction Hispanic-American multicultural stories with universal themes by Gary Soto in peer-led literature discussion groups. The results indicate the importance of a reader’s sociocultural frame—class, race, and gender, on their interpretation of multicultural stories with universal themes. As the socio-economic status and ethnicity of the students varied from those of the protagonists,’ most of the universal experiences of the protagonists were not accessible to the students, as evidenced in the students’ interpretations of the character’s actions. The exception was a story focusing on social acceptance. The children’s norms for physical appearance, language, and food customs also influenced their interpretations.

Improving Writing: Comparing the Responses of Eighth-Graders, Preservice Teachers and Experienced Teachers

ABSTRACT This study investigates how middle school students and teachers in preservice and master of arts classes analyze writing samples. Three sets of participants analyzed and scored a common set of writings. Findings indicate that several intact classroom groups of eighth-graders, preservice teachers, and veteran teachers in a graduate reading program evaluated electronic literature discussion group writing sets similarly, in terms of both numeric assessments and rationales for why they assigned numeric values. Researchers concluded that there is general agreement about what constitutes good writing, that writing instruction that incorporates meaningful evaluation can support both developmental and struggling writers, and that an evaluation of writing may provide an instructional entry for teachers. All three groups were highly engaged in the small group evaluation, suggesting that peer-mediated writing activities are effective for teaching writing to diverse learners.