Readings: February 7

I really liked the Almasi and McGee articles because I could relate to them. All my experiences in school and in my placement now I experienced and witness the more “traditional” recitation style discussion around literature where the teacher has a predetermined list of questions to ask students. In my placement, my CT will as the students a question and let most of them answer. She’ll respond to some, but not others. I am in a kindergarten classroom so it may be young to let the students have a student led discussion, however it might be good practice for the students to start having “response-centered” discussions at an early age. This will encourage the students to form their own opinions and conclusions about a text and discuss and compare it with others’. I think that even in younger classrooms this type of talk can be done. It may have to be more teacher facilitated so the teacher should be prepared to encourage others to listen to their peers' responses and ask questions based on them.

I liked the part in the McGee article where it states, “good talks can provide more than just what children know, it can be an opportunity for them to learn.” I really like this because I feel that often time’s discussion is just a form of assessment, seeing what student know or think. Instead, the talk should be more of a discussion not based on right answers or who has the best observation. Any comment can provide a chance for peers to learn from each other and those opportunities should be presented as often as possible through response-centered talk.