Allison's response 2/4

I found Stacey's post to be very interesting. I was surprised about the lack of discussion within their classroom. I found it a shame that the teacher was only asking questions that required specific answers. I would be interested to see how the students would do with holding a discussion on their own with a book. Especially for 5th grade, that is a skill that should be worked on. I feel that the response-centered talk could be aided if each student had their own copy of the book. Instead of having students fill in worksheets, they could think about which part of the book they want to talk about, or find a theme throughout the book to discuss. The students need to see scaffolding and be shown how to lead a class discussion. There is definitely room for the teacher to improve classroom discussion here.

I am in a first grade classroom. My teacher at the beginning of the year did model to the class how they were going to have their book talks (so she modeled good/bad comments, how to share your opinion). They read at least one story a day and will talk about it after. She will ask open ended questions and the students share their responses. She will also open the floor to them and ask if there is anything they want to talk about from the book. In that case my teacher is allowing students to lead the discussion. I would ask the 5th grade class to share more of their thoughts about the book as a way to get the classroom discussion started.