By Laura Robb

A group of five eighth grade students meet to develop open-ended questions for historical fiction texts about war; their instructional reading levels range from fifth to seventh grade. Students have read the first four chapters in their instructional reading books and are preparing for a student-led discussion. Even though they read different books, they know how to develop open-ended questions based on themes, conflicts, problems, and how characters cope with war—questions that lead to meaningful discussions. In fact, discussing multiple texts results in richer conversations because students can also compare and contrast wars in the context of different historical periods.

Books Students Have Selected

So Far From the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins

My Brother Sam Is Dead by Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier

Number the Stars by Lois Lowery

Shades of Gray by Carolyn Reeder

Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers

This scenario highlights how I embed three key learning priorities that have students:

1. Choose from a group of books at their instructional level;
2. Read books they can learn from and discuss with other group members;
3. Collaborate to develop questions for a discussion they will lead.

I always offer students choice of reading materials, so they invest in and commit to the reading (Miller 2009; Robb 2010). Finding books for a wide-range of reading levels is doable when you ask your school librarian to help you select books for your students’ needs—books that are worth reading, reflecting on, and discussing.

In this article, I will discuss the literary conversations students can have with a small group, the entire class, partners, and even themselves in the form of in-the-head conversations. But first, let’s take a look at how student-led conversations develop the twenty-first century skills they will need as they continue their education and eventually join a job market that requires highly developed literacy and analytical skills (Recovery 2020).

Student-Led Literary Conversations Develop 21st Century Learning Skills

Today’s classrooms should provide students with the experiences needed to develop the four 21st century skills, called the 4C’s: collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. Everything students do at school should equip them with the 4C’s and build the interpersonal, creative, and analytical skills necessary for solving global problems such as limited water and food supplies, climate change, immigration, and humanitarian problems that will arise as the future unfolds.  You can develop the 4C’s with a student-centered approach in which you facilitate learning, not control it with worksheets, daily quizzes, and recitation, posing questions with one correct answer. Student-led literary conversations are one such approach that can be woven into your daily lessons.

Right from the start students collaborate in groups or with partners to compose discussion questions, estimate how much time they’ll need to complete a discussion, and decide who will be the student-facilitator that maintains the discussion’s forward motion. During discussions, students communicate directly with each other. They organize and present their ideas in ways listeners can understand and follow. Meaningful talk can lead students to recall details and then use these details to identify themes and main ideas and cite evidence that supports their thinking. Critically analyzing texts asks students to use creativity and imagination by stepping into characters’ shoes and living life as they lived it (Coles, 1990). In addition, as others share ideas, students observe creative thinking in action and see how the evidence they cited can support different viewpoints.

After the discussion, I have students debrief with two questions: What worked and why? What can we improve and how? They apply the 4C’s as they reflect on their process which results in setting goals that can improve their conversations.  One such debriefing enabled a group of eighth graders to notice that three students dominated the conversation and two did not contribute. To reach their goal of full participation, students agreed that the group facilitator would remind everyone to participate before the discussion began. And yes, there are other ways to solve this problem, but permitting students to find a solution means they collaborate to problem solve. If one solution doesn’t work, they can agree on and try another.

Not only do literary conversations strengthen students’ communication and collaboration skills, they also foster a sense of agency by inviting students to work together to compose questions that lead to discussing and uncovering layers of meaning in texts.

Initiating Literary Discussions With Interpretive Questions

Research shows that students who are taught to generate their own questions after reading can develop a deeper understanding of the text than students who receive no training and practice (Rothstein & Santana, 2011; Zimmerman & Keene, 2007).  Deeper comprehension develops because students must have a thorough knowledge of the reading material to create questions. Moreover, using their questions motivates students to discuss texts and also leads to greater independence.

Explain to students that there are two kinds of questions: open-ended, interpretive questions that have more than one answer and closed questions that have one correct answer. For example, an interpretive questions for The Giver by Lois Lowery is Why does the Giver encourage and help Jonas to escape the community? A closed question is Who does Jonas take with him when he leaves the community?  An interpretive question has more than one answer that can be supported with text evidence. Tell students that as soon as they can find two valid answers to a question, they can think about composing another question. You’ll also want to teach students to ask guiding questions so they can explore ideas in multiple texts.

Initiating Literary Discussions With Guiding Questions

In the opening of this article, I describe a unit on war that has students reading different texts. Such a unit is ideal for developing guiding questions that move beyond a specific book to exploring a topic, an issue, or a common theme. For the unit on war, students developed two guiding questions: Is there such a thing as a just war?  Why do conflicts escalate into wars?

Help students develop guiding questions for a unit of study by telling them the issue, theme, or concept they’ll be exploring. Then ask students to use the idea such as stereotyping or obstacles to compose a question that can’t be answered in one or two sentences. Guiding questions such as How do obstacles affect the course of a person’s life? or Why does stereotyping limit a person’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?  compel students to read texts closely, think critically, and agree or disagree as they exchange ideas in order to build understandings and a knowledge base.

The teaching tips that follow will enable you to facilitate engaging, student-led, literary conversations.

Four Tips for Initiating a Variety of Student-Led Literary Discussions

You can engage students in talk about a text you’re reading aloud, texts they’re reading at their instructional levels, a common short text, different texts on the same genre, topic, or issue, and independent reading materials (Robb, 2016).  

Tip 1: Negotiate how much time groups will have for their literary conversations With students’ input, establish a timeline that provides a deadline date for discussions that may extend over several class periods. Let students know that they need to tell you in advance if they can’t meet a deadline. Negotiate extra time for students if they have been using class time productively.

Tip 2: Give students prompts that keep discussions moving forward. Have groups choose a member who will be in charge of using prompts such as:

• Does anyone have a different idea?
• Can you find text evidence that supports that idea?
• Can you clarify your point?
• Can you explain that term?

Tip 3: As students discuss, circulate among them and listen. Provide desk-side scaffolding for students who can benefit from 2-to-3-minute interventions, such as using context to figure out a word’s meaning or setting a purpose before reading. Note the names of students who require more time to move to independence and support them when the rest of the class reads independently.

Tip 4: Set a signal for closing a conversation. You can flick the classroom lights to get students’ attention and say something like, “You have about one minute to finish.”  Always end on a positive note by sharing what you noticed: I heard different interpretations; I liked the careful listening; I noticed that everyone wrote in their notebooks.

Implementing this approach take s time, and you should know that student-led discussions often derail at first. I recommend that teachers start with whole-class discussions so they can model and scaffold the process, and then  release responsibility to small groups and partners.

Read Talk Write

When talk precedes informal writing about reading, written responses reveal critical thinking and analysis. The research on informal writing about reading is compelling: When students write about books they read their comprehension of the text jumps 24 percentile points (Graham & Harris, 2016).  For this reason, after literary conversations I encourage students to summarize key points of their conversations in a notebook or to write about one of the open-ended questions they composed.

With his partner, Lucas discussed examples of Atticus Finch’s courage (To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee). The paragraph reveals that the pair took the discussion beyond the prompt and linked it to what Jem and Scout learn about courage from their father. The odds of your students making similar connections are greater when talk precedes writing about reading because during a conversation students have the opportunity to find new connections and try out ideas in a non-threatening way.

Jem and Scout learn from their father that courage is standing up for someone who can’t stand up for themselves. When Tom and Atticus are both cornered by an angry mob, Atticus holds his ground and tries to resolve the conflict in a peaceful manner. He tries to convince the mob to let due process decide whether or not Tom is guilty. Atticus showed his courage here by not standing down no matter the threat, as all he wanted was justice. This experience taught Jem and Scout that everybody, of any race, deserves a chance at due process. “Stand up your daddy’s passing,” this quote from the Reverand shows that even though Atticus had lost the trial, everyone in the black community recognized that he had tried his hardest, deserved respect, and proved Tom was innocent. This is shown because usually people only stand up when a judge enters or exits the courtroom.

Four Student-Led Discussions

Discussions can be a quick turn-and-talk with a partner, but they should also include longer conversations that call upon students’ critical thinking skills and creativity.

Whole-Class Discussions

These can take 5 to 20 minutes and ask students to participate without raising hands. Initiate the discussion with a guiding or interpretive question; remind students to cite text evidence to support ideas. Encourage everyone to risk participating. Students listen to each other and take turns responding, being careful to wait until a classmate has finished. Jot key ideas and summarize them to close the discussion.

Small-Group Discussions

Three to six students have a discussion for 10-30 minutes and might need more than one class to complete the discussion.  As in a whole-class discussion, students take turns responding without raising hands; groups choose a peer to use prompts that keep the discussion moving forward.

Partner Discussions

Two students have an in-depth conversation about student-generated guiding and/or interpretive questions, issues, or concepts. Partners can focus on a small chunk of text (quote or chapter) or the whole text. Discussions can take 5-30 minutes and may extend over multiple class periods.

In-the-Head Conversations

Students have these conversations with themselves while reading, looking at photographs, attending a play, or watching a video or movie. Internal conversations motivate and engage students with written, oral, or visual texts. It is also a meta-cognitive tool helping students recognize when a passage confuses them, signaling the student to reread or close read to comprehend.

Assessing Literary Conversations

There are many ways to assess literary conversations including notebook entries and teacher observation forms to jot comments on students’ preparation, participation, and thinking (Daniels 2006). You can also ask students to write paragraphs and essays based on their discussions and notebook entries.  The point to remember is that when students choose texts they want to and can read, write discussion questions, and exchange ideas with peers, reading, talking, and writing about reading become engaging and meaningful.

Closing Thoughts

When you incorporate student-led literary conversations, you inspire students to read, talk, and write about materials they choose. Remember, a student-centered approach creates a community of learners who collaborate and support one another. The result? Students improve as readers, writers, communicators, and critical thinkers.

References

Center for Continuing & Professional Education. Report: Recovery 2020 – Job Growth and Education Requirements through 2020. (http://scs.georgetown.edu/departments/5/center-for-continuing-and-professional-education/news/1052/report-recovery-2020-job-growth-and-education-requirements-through-2020

Coles, R. (1990). The call of stories: Teaching and the moral imagination.

Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Daniels, H. (2006). What’s the next big thing with literature circles? Voices from

Middle, 13(4),10-15.

Graham, S. & Harris, K. R. (2016). A path to better writing: Evidence-based practices in the classroom. The Reading Teacher, 69, 369-365.

Miller, D. (2009). The book whisperer: Awakening the inner reader in every

child. New York: Jossey-Bass.

Robb, L. (2010). Teaching reading in middle school, 2nd edition. New York:

Scholastic.

Robb, L. (2016). Read talk write: 35 lessons that teach students to analyze

fiction and nonfiction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Literacy.

Rothstein, D. & Santana, L. (2011). Teaching students to ask their own

questions. Harvard Education Letter, 27 (5), 1-2.

Zimmerman, S. & Keene, E. O. (2007). Mosaic of thought. Portsmouth, NH:

Heinemann.

Young Adult Books

Collier, J. L. (2005). My brother Sam is dead. New York: Scholastic.

Lee, H. (1988). To kill a mockingbird. New York: Grand Central Publisher.

Lowery, L. (2011).  Number the stars. Boston, MA: HMH Books for Young

Readers.

Lowery, L. (1993). The giver. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Myers, W.D. (2009). Sunrise over Fallujah. New York: Scholastic.

Reeder, C.  1999), Shades of gray. New York: Aladdin Books.

Watkins, Y.K. ( 2008). So far from the bamboo grove. New York: HarperCollins.

My four-year-old granddaughter Helena and I are alternating skipping and walking on a warm, sunny June day on the sidewalks of Winchester, Virginia. We stop to look closely at a parade of ants marching on the sidewalk and listen to a redbird singing in an oak tree.
Helena is full of questions. Why aren’t mushrooms green like plants? Why do worms stay under the ground? Suddenly she stops, looks up at me and says: “I’m never going to school!” When I ask her why, she says, “Because my brother [in second grade] comes home and it’s homework every day.”
“What will you do if you don’t go to school?” I ask.
In response, Helena spreads her arms out wide and skips around me, shouting again and again, “Play! I’ll play!”
The sorry state of play
Helena, like all young children who play to learn, use their five senses, raise questions that stimulate their imagination, and continually take risks to better understand their environment. However, in kindergartens today, time for play as a way of learning has decreased over the last two decades in favor of explicit instruction on literacy. The ripple effect across the upper elementary and middle grades is profound.
Early childhood expert Erika Christakis, author of The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need From Grownups, points out that during the era of the Common Core State Standards, kindergarten education has changed, resulting in some educators viewing kindergarten as the new first grade.
Instead of improving reading instruction in middle and high school to raise our standing on international and state tests, those educators believe that by teaching much younger children reading skills, their scores will soar in later grades.
As Christakis notes in a recent article in The Atlantic, even preschool programs have reduced time for play in favor of explicit instruction in reading and math. Instead of the social interactions and explorations that are a hallmark of play in early education, in many preschool settings young children sit in seats and complete worksheets that drill phonics and sight words. Gone are the easels, gone are the water and sand tables, and gone are the dress-up centers for pretend play.
What we risk when we eliminate play
Yet, imaginative play and the exploration of concepts (such as why snakes slither and how seeds germinate) have cognitive and emotional benefits to young children that develop their creativity, abstract thinking, imagination, and problem solving abilities.
At the same time, play develops children’s self-confidence, their ability to cooperate, share, and listen to one another’s ideas. With reductions in time for play as a way of learning in favor of “skill and drill,” I fear young children won’t realize the cognitive and emotional benefits of play, which will ultimately affect their ability to imagine, innovate and problem solve in the middle grades and high school.
Play is important at every development stage
Some of the greatest educational researchers and philosophers—John Dewey, Jerome Bruner, Lev Vygotsky, and Jean Piaget—promote play as important for social development, learning, and bridging children’s imagination to reality. Moreover, as far back as 346 B.C.E., the Greek philosopher Plato wrote in Laws that play is a child’s preparation for a future career.
Friedrich Froebel, the German educator who developed kindergarten for boys and girls, agreed with Plato when he explained that a man’s later life has its roots in childhood play (The Education of Man, 1887). For me, children of all ages, not just preschoolers, explore and learn about their world, through play.
To prepare students for college, career, and a meaningful and productive adult life, teachers need to incorporate playful learning that engages and motivates elementary, middle, and high school students. Integrating playful learning into core subjects such as reading, writing, math, science, and social studies can ramp up students’ academic achievement while making learning relevant to their lives.
Teachers in the middle grades are generally not a position to address the issues of play in preschool and elementary. But they can integrate what I call the “Big 10 Student Motivators.” These strategies encourage playful learning, can boost students’ innovative thinking and problem-solving skills, and at the same time engage students in reading, writing, researching, discussing, and analyzing materials in all subjects.
The Big Ten Student Motivators:
Providing choice in independent reading, writing topics, and projects makes students feel invested in tasks and develops their responsibility and independence in learning.
Collaborating to learn invites students to work in pairs and small groups, share ideas, value diverse thinking, and become active listeners who respect one another thinking. Collaboration enables students to develop open-ended discussion questions, plan and execute projects, study for tests, evaluate websites and other sources, have literary conversations, and pool research. And, of course, collaboration invites play.
Integrating meaningful talk makes learning social for a communicating generation in which Face Time, Twitter, and texting are commonplace. Meaningful talk can happen with partners, small groups and the whole class. During student-led talk, teachers become facilitators who enter a discussion to periodically summarize points or jump-start a stalled conversation by posing a question.
Problem solving asks students to be generative thinkers, coming up with a variety of possible solutions to school and community problems and problems related to topics they’re studying. For example, a fifth grade unit on friendship transforms into problem solving when students self-select and read a variety of texts and then collaborate in small group to compose a pamphlet on what makes friendships work and what derails them. Moreover, choice enables students to select materials from which they know they can learn.
Inquiry learning invites students to ask the questions they’ll discuss and/or research for a topic, project, or unit of study. Inquiry learning is social because it requires students to collaborate and support one another. By sharing ideas, they learn to value the diverse thinking of peers. During an inquiry study, students gain control over their learning, develop opinions on topics, and gain a fluency and flexibility in analytical thinking.
Encouraging risk taking creates an environment in which students feel comfortable making mistakes and even failing. Students who can take risks without fear of criticism from their teacher and peers can become better problem solvers and creative thinkers. In a comfortable and safe space, they can learn from their mistakes.
Unlocking creativity occurs when students are put into a situation in which they can think about and create ideas in their own unique ways. Students who think creatively have multiple ways to solve a problem, or interpret a story, painting, or movie. At school student-centered approaches to learning such as collaboration, inquiry, and student-led discussions encourage creative and innovative thinking.
Developing empathy means that students can step into the shoes of others, understand life as they do, empathize with their problems, and share their joys. Social interactions, collaborations, and reading about and watching videos and movies about other cultures and ways of life other than their own develop and expand students’ ability to empathize. In a student-centered, culturally diverse classroom, empathy leads to understanding, respecting cultural differences, and developing social responsibility.
Teacher-student negotiating fosters independence in learning as students and teachers become co-decision makers for setting deadline dates and suggesting projects, test formats, test questions, and the amount of assigned homework.
Going out for recess, enjoying time to play outside,recharges elementary and middle school students’ learning batteries so they can concentrate. Yet many elementary and middle schools have reduced or eliminated recess in favor of more time for reading, writing, and math. In addition, five-minute brain breaks should occur after students have focused deeply for thirty minutes. Students can stretch, move around, chat with friends, and use their renewed energy to concentrate again.
Some playful closing thoughts
The Big 10 Student Motivators are skills for the 21st century and beyond—skills valued and used by government agencies, corporations, universities, small businesses, and school districts that depend on members to know how to collaborate as they solve problems, develop policy, generate an abundance of ideas, and respond to issues and events.
Learning begins with play. If students of today are to become the innovators and problem solvers of tomorrow, then schools need to respond to the call of play in all grades.

By Laura Robb

Your core curriculum defines Tier 1 instruction; it’s the curriculum your school expects you to deliver to all students. However, responsive teachers are flexible and make adjustments to their curriculum that meet the needs of individual students. Educators agree that quality Tier 1 instruction can support about 80 percent of the students you teach, enabling them to make solid growth during a school year.

There is no one correct way for building students’ reading and writing capacity using your core curriculum. I suggest that when you plan interventions, you focus them on a specific need and find two to three scaffolds that might work. That way, if one isn’t supporting a student, you have another idea at your fingertips.

There are five kinds of interventions you can use. However, longer interventions require the support of a resource and/or special education teacher. Of the five interventions that follow, the classroom teacher can integrate the first three into daily lessons. By circulating among students when they read, write, work at learning centers or computers, you can gain insights into who understands the lesson and who requires your support.

Intervention 1: Two-to-Three-Minute Conversations

An important purpose of this brief intervention is to decide which students you can support during a two-to-three minute conversation and who requires a five- minute exploratory conference. Observe, listen, and ask students’ questions as you circulate among them while they are reading, writing, or working in small groups. Such daily interactions enable you to check on the progress of students you previously helped and continue monitoring all students as they practice new tasks and work independently.

As you circulate look for behaviors that show students are disengaged from the work: the student isn’t reading, writing, or sharing during a student-led discussion; a student is doodling in his notebook, slumping in her seat, or resting his head on the desk. Have an on-the-spot informal conversation with each student and decide whether you need more than a short conversation to scaffold the learning. Difficulty with applying a strategy, completing a writing plan, revising a journal entry, or taking notes, usually requires a longer conference. However, issues such as changing a text that’s too difficult, figuring out the meaning of a tough word, or getting started on a response to a text can usually be supported during a two-to-three minute conversation. Jot the high points and suggestions of this conversation on a sticky note and give it to the student as a reminder.

While you find the time to confer with a student, have him or her work on a task that he or she can successfully complete independently such as reading a self-selected book or working on a project with a peer partner. If you have time, schedule a five-minute exploratory conference that day or the next day, so you can decide the kind of support that student requires.

Intervention 2: Five-Minute Exploratory Intervention

The purpose of this one-on-one intervention is to help you decide how much support a student needs to move to independence with a task. It’s possible that you can clear up the student’s confusion in one to two conferences. However, there will be times when your observations of the student practicing a task such as finding text evidence or comparing and contrasting two characters indicate the need for a series of three or more short conferences to move that student to independence.

Intervention 3: A Series of Five-Minute Interventions

If your exploratory intervention reveals the need for more in-depth scaffolding, schedule a series of five-minute conferences. Hold five-minute conferences in a quiet place in the classroom while other students are completing work independently. Set up a small table or a student desk away from other students so you have privacy while conferring. A student will be reluctant to share his or her feelings and concerns if everyone in the class can hear.

By spending five minutes a day with a student you gain the time to model, have the student practice and think aloud in front of you, then gradually release responsibility for competing the task to the student. These conferences support students if you focus the task. If students need help with text structure, decide what genre you’ll focus on and identify exactly what the student needs to understand.

Most five-minute conferences are between the teacher and one student. However, if there are two to four students practicing the same strategy with you, you might bring them together once they are close to achieving independence. Often, at this point in the scaffolding, asking students to practice together and share and discuss their process can quickly move them to independence.

Intervention 4: Ten to Fifteen-Minutes

Use if you observe little to no progress during a series of 5-mnute conferences. A longer intervention conference offers you more time for modeling , building student’s background knowledge, and observing what the student does. Extra time also provides students with an opportunity to ask questions, to reflect on progress, to pinpoint parts of a task the student does and does not understand.

This longer conference works best with one student and you can usually return to 5-minute conferences once the learning has been absorbed and you are releasing responsibility to the student. However, if you have two to three students working on the same strategy, then you can intervene with the small group.

Finding time is difficult. This longer conference doesn’t work n a short class period. You can meet with the student before school starts, during lunch, or ask a teacher to release the student for 15 minutes so you can work with him or her during a planning period. The goal is to return to shorter conferences.

Intervention 5: Twenty to Forty Minutes

Usually, a resource teacher works with students who require more time to understand a strategy and move to independence. This long intervention is usually for students reading two or more years below grade level. In addition, these students usually score below the 25th percentile on standardized tests.

The purpose of this intervention is to provide the time students need to improve. The goal should be to move students out of these interventions into support the classroom teacher can manage. These students, like proficient and advanced readers, need to read self-selected books at their independent reading level in order to accelerate their progress.

Once you move beyond the two-three minute repair conversations, you need to document all conferences on the form provided in this newsletter.