Language Arts - Discussion in the Language Arts Classroom, Nov 1994

Teachers always have important questions as they move toward using peer discussions in their classrooms. This article addresses many of these questions.

Getting those “grand conversations” about literature going in the classroom takes persistence, reflection, and an ability to adapt, as these three teachers’ stories show.

Trying literary discussions in your classroom and finding they aren’t all like the engaging ones you read in the literature? This article helps us understand those less-than-perfect discussions and the roles they can play in children’s literacy learning.

The decision by a group of second graders about what makes a good literature discussion question proves to be absolutely right, much to the teacher’s surprise.

This story of a classroom discussion of Maniac Magee lets us see how literature discussions can help both teachers and students understand their own and others’ cultural and social identities.