By craft, not by chance: Teacher talk in literature discussions

Every literacy teacher needs an assembly and toolkit for setting up a literature discussion, and making it work. Okay, I confess. This is something I need. Literature discussions, whether whole-class discussions, small group book clubs or literature circles, can be frightening experiences for teachers without a conscious awareness of specific strategies that can be used to increase the chances of a smooth ride ahead in these discussions. I know I have experienced it. It seemed to me that all I had control of was selecting engaging texts and crafting questions that would, fingers crossed, maintain the discussion. I was proven wrong time and again. For me, the hardest part of conducting literature discussions has always been in maintaining the discussions: making sure students didn't go off-topic, encouraging everyone to participate, figuring out how best to respond to what students had to say. Conducting literature discussions would not have been such a mystery to me then, had I known of what Kathy Short and colleagues share in their article, 'Teacher watching: Examining teacher talk in literature circles'. In this post, I highlight some salient points that stood out for me.

Some roles that teachers can play in literature discussions:

1.  Facilitator. As facilitator, the teacher encourages interaction and keeps distracting interactions in check. The teacher as facilitator frequently does the following:

• Encourage students to expand on their ideas
• Provide additional information necessary to understanding the text (e.g. historical context of the story)
• Restate responses by students which may were missed by the group
• Maintain the conversation (e.g. encouraging a response from a silent member, keeping order when more than one member speaks at the same time)
• Pose challenge to a comment where it is warranted, such as when a response serves to stereotype

2.  Participant. As participant, the teacher can share (I have Chapter 1 of Charlotte's Web in mind as I write this):

• Connections to the book (e.g. This reminds me of what I read in Gail Gibbon's 'Pigs'.)
• Personal experiences related to the book (e.g. An experience of feeding an abandoned kitten from a bottle.)
• Broad thematic statements (e.g. Children learn a lot from taking care of animals.)
• Questions that are genuinely puzzling (e.g. I wonder why Avery is carrying a gun and a dagger.)
• Expressing personal opinions and evaluations (e.g. I think Fern is a responsible little girl.)

3.  Mediator. The teacher as mediator can encourage students to connect the text being discussed to their personal experiences, through recognizing that literature discussions can be a platform for: 

• Students to use the discussion as a platform for talking about and working through personal issues
• Teachers to gain insight into students' thoughts and experiences

4.  Active listener. While it is commonly known that active listening through saying 'yeah', or 'hmmm', or simply nodding is essential to effective communication, Short and colleagues caution that even a good thing can be harmful when used in the wrong situation. From their observations, students can sometimes become too concerned with wanting to impress the teacher that their attention is focused on getting that 'yeah' and nod of approval from the teacher rather than actively engaging and listening closely to their peers. If the teacher was not present, however, students might listen to each other more attentively. 

Most interestingly, the authors argued that the extent to which teachers assume the above roles have a powerful influence on how effectively discussion groups can run without the presence of the teacher  arguably the end goal for discussion groups. Ultimately, the teacher's role in literature discussions is to model the expected talk and behavior in this specific discourse. 

Back to my experience. I largely thought of myself as a facilitator and active listener. No wonder there were sometimes awkward silences after I said an 'uh huh' in response to a student. Perhaps other students were apprehensive about whether what they wanted to say would be smart enough to gain my approval? I had the belief that bringing in my experiences would be irrelevant, or even distracting. Now I realize how much my students would have gained if I had shown by example that we should constantly be seeking to make connections in our reading to our personal lives. How much richer my students' lessons would've been, had I played the role of mediator more, inviting them to grapple with personal issues right there in the classroom, through using literature as a mirror into their own lives. 

Yet another humble reminder that teaching is a craft, which needs everyday honing. 

Another great resource: 

Harvey Daniel's 'Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles' features many practical ideas for mini-lessons which prepare students to participate in literature circles. For example, in the Sharing Air Time mini-lesson, each member in the circle are given the same number of tokens at the beginning of the discussion. Each time they respond, they would give up one of the tokens. This strategy attempts to keep a too-dominant student in check, and encourages quieter students to speak up.