Deep Understandings: Using Dialogue to Build Responsible Readers

Abstract

This study will research how student talk about texts can lead them to deeper understandings. It will explore the kinds of thinking they can communicate to others, their ability to listen to differing opinions, to make their own interpretations, and their willingness to anticipate changes in thinking. This research is aimed at finding the role talk plays in students’ learning when these students engage in daily purposeful and thought-provoking discussions with a wide range of literature. The study’s findings are taken from student surveys, video recordings of student discussions, copies of students’ written conversations, and teacher observations from one fourth grade classroom.