English Language Development

Figure 7.5. Joining the Conversation

Imagine you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded

you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause

and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before

any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that

had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the

argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your

defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of

your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally’s assistance. However, the discussion is

interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still

vigorously in progress.

Source

Burke, Kenneth. 1973/1941. The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action, 3rd ed., 110-111. Berkeley:

University of California Press.

When students have “caught the tenor of the argument,” they join the conversation by “putting
in their oar” or writing in response. Teachers encourage all students to “join the conversation” by
structuring daily opportunities for extended discussions to occur, strategically selecting (or pursuing
student-selected) topics that are intellectually stimulating for students, and explicitly conveying the
message that all questions and responses are welcome and valid, even if students have not fully
clarified their thinking when they enter the conversation. Indeed, it is often through the conversation
that students learn to articulate and clarify their ideas. When students are prevented from entering
and fully engaging in conversations (because they are afraid of saying the wrong thing, for example),
this important opportunity for cognitive and linguistic growth is thwarted.

See the section on questioning in chapter 6 for grades six through eight of this ELA/ELD
Framework for other examples of questioning.

Using Other Comprehension Strategies. The goal of strategy instruction is for students
to become strategic, active readers who employ the strategies used by effective readers. Specific
strategies supported by research (Duke and Pearson 2002; National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development 2000) include the following:

• Setting purposes for reading


• Previewing and predicting


• Activating prior knowledge


• Monitoring, clarifying, and fixing


• Visualizing and creating visual representations


• Drawing inferences


• Self-questioning and thinking aloud


• Summarizing and retelling
  By grades nine through twelve, most students
  have learned to employ strategy routines, such as
  reciprocal teaching, that combine one or more of
  the listed strategies. Duke and Pearson recommend the gradual release of responsibility model (see
  chapter 2 of this framework) for teaching strategies, which progresses through five stages:

Teachers encourage all students to

“join the conversation” by structuring

daily opportunities for extended

discussions to occur, strategically

selecting (or pursuing student-

selected) topics that are intellectually

stimulating for students, and explicitly

conveying the message that all

questions and responses are welcome

and valid, even if students have not

fully clarified their thinking when they

enter the conversation.

678 | Chapter 7 Grades 9 to 12