Designing Conversation: Book Discussions in a Primary Inclusion Classroom

This study examined the nature of student talk and the teacher's role during book discussions. The participants were 17 first- and second-graders with and without disabilities in an inner-city inclusion classroom. Applied conversation analysis techniques were employed to analyze two videotaped...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Learning disability quarterly 2005, Vol.28 (1), p.35-58
Main Authors: Ruth A. Wiebe Berry, Englert, Carol Sue
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Children with disabilities
Classroom Communication
Classrooms
Cognition & reasoning
Conversation
Conversation analysis
Crystals
Disabilities
Disability
Discussion (Teaching Technique)
Disorders
Earths Moon
Education
Elementary education
Elementary school students
Inclusive Schools
Language arts
Learning
Learning Disabilities
Learning disabled
Learning Processes
Literature
Negotiation
Novels
Participation
Regular and Special Education Relationship
Special education
Special needs students
Student Participation
Students with disabilities
Study and teaching
Sugars
Teacher Role
Teachers
Teaching
Verbal communication
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Summary:This study examined the nature of student talk and the teacher's role during book discussions. The participants were 17 first- and second-graders with and without disabilities in an inner-city inclusion classroom. Applied conversation analysis techniques were employed to analyze two videotaped book discussions. Results indicated that student-selected topics and contingent talk were necessary for fluent conversational discourse. Additionally, the teacher's role was crucial in apprenticing students to deal with a novel participant structure and its attendant complex linguistic and cognitive requirements. Results also demonstrated the competence with which students with disabilities assumed influential and decisive roles in the discussions. Implications for students with disabilities are discussed in terms of opportunities for self-expression and involvement in constructing and negotiating the activity.
ISSN:0731-9487
2168-376X
DOI:10.2307/4126972