Building Literacy Through Classroom Discussion: Research-Based Strategies for Developing Critical Readers and Thoughtful Writers in Middle School

by Mary Adler, Eija Rougle

Want to help students achieve greater depth of reading, writing, and understanding? This book shows teachers how to facilitate discussions where students share rich, defensible interpretations of literature and solid, reasoned, understandings of any concepts under study. Based on the authors’ extensive research in middle schools, it describes why discussion-based instruction is crucial to achievement, and then shows you how to introduce and sustain discussions. The authors clearly define the teacher’s role and provide lots of successful strategies such as provocative statements and journal jots. Trouble-shooting sections answer common questions teachers have, such as how to correct a wrong interpretation and how to teach students to build on each other’s comments.

216 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2005

Reviews

[C. Varn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adler does a great job of giving teachers both a framework and technique for using discussion to develop critical reading capacity and understanding. The part of the book that really shines though is trouble-shooting, including ways to correct misinterpretation without exerting too much influence on the students thought and over-guiding them. Primarily focuses on middle school, but excellent.

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a great book. Every teacher should have a copy in their personal library. Takes reading from face value to deeper true meaning of the story. It is great for STAAR delving into the story.