Literary Conversations in the Classroom

Book excerpt: Combining research with real-life classroom examples, this book demonstrates how high-level conversations centered on fiction and nonfiction can promote student understanding and help them meet and exceed a spectrum of standards. The authors demonstrate how to use literary conversations in small, heterogeneous groups to address multiple expectations within classrooms, such as close reading, vocabulary, background knowledge, literal and inferential comprehension, and responses to multimodal interpretation, nonfiction text features, and graphic organizers. The text includes the theoretical why, and the very practical how-to, to help teachers (grades 3–8) successfully implement serious, sustained student-group conversations about their reading. The recommendations for heterogeneous groups, rather than groups based on book selection or reading ability, will support all students—struggling readers and those reading at or above grade level. This practical resource shows teachers how to: Group students heterogeneously, from inexperienced participants to sophisticated readers.Support each student as he or she reads a nonfiction or fiction book.Engage students in critical conversations centered on their reading.Be mindful of the roles for each student and how these change based on genre. Assess student participation and literacy outcomes. “Barone and Barone show us how to guide students’ literacy development through interactions. They articulate the support teachers and students need to engage in deep conversations about narrative and informational texts such that students uncover their thinking and explore the thinking of their peers relative to complex texts. The ideas contained within this volume have the potential to unleash student learning in powerful ways.” —Douglas Fisher, San Diego State University “Barone and Barone have created a valuable resource--perfect for meeting the expectations of the Common Core and fostering students’ comprehension, as well as their speaking and listening skills.” —Maureen McLaughlin, Professor of Reading, East Stroudsburg University of PA, 2013–2014 President of the International Literacy Association