Teaching Reading and Literature with Classroom Talk

Book excerpt: This book presents a framework for conceptualizing and enacting dialogic approaches to teaching literature and reading in your classroom. Dialogical approaches have often been used in secondary classrooms for teaching writing by incorporating students’ lives and experiences into the English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum. But what might it look like to create reading moments that bring texts to life by allowing students to use their own identities and experiences as the foundation for their interpretation? The most current research in reading, motivation, culturally responsive teaching, and even neuroscience points to the power of dialogical approaches to not only engage students in reading texts, but—when used consistently and repeatedly—help increase students’ reading growth and achievement. Dialogical approaches can be particularly helpful for struggling readers, English language learners (ELLs), and neurodivergent students. This book explores dialogical approaches to teaching reading and literature in secondary ELA classrooms with descriptions of hands-on activities, models of dialogical strategies, and real-time examples from ELA and reading classes. Each chapter includes motivating, accessible, and research-based methods and tools that help students connect content to their lives and explore a diversity of perspectives. With resources such as assignment sheets and rubrics, this is an essential book for middle and high school ELA teachers, reading coaches and interventionists, teachers working with ELLs, and pre-service teachers who are looking to better understand and utilize dialogical approaches to support their students in transforming their reader identities.