Classroom Discussion of Content Area Reading Assignments: An Intervention Study

THE AIM OF this study was to examine discussions of assigned readings in content area classrooms at the high school level, and to attempt modifications of these discussions so they would reflect more higher-order thinking and critical reading. The 6-month intervention study began with observation and analysis of existing discussion patterns in five classrooms in the Southeastern United States, focusing on the types of references teachers and students made to the texts they discussed (e.g., literal retellings, inferences, etc.). These five teachers, the authors of the study, and two research assistants then cooperated in planning instruction aimed at modifying the kinds of verbal exchanges between teachers and students, and among students. Videotaped discussions, field notes, teacher-student conferences, and student questionnaires were analyzed. Although teachers and students exhibited a marked stability in their verbal exchange patterns, there were changes in the types of references they made to the materials they were reading. All of the teachers whose goal was to elicit from students more inferential responses in discussing a text achieved that goal, even though they did not effect substantial and lasting changes in classroom interaction patterns.