Abstract
Structured academic discussions can focus too much on academic language to the detriment of actual discussion, disempowering students with the very tools intended to enhance student voice. The author suggests a new goal for such classroom talk: encouraging students to generate ideas and questions that engage their peers by focusing on the unexpected, provoking them to reconsider their assumptions about the world.
|
Applebee, A.N., Langer, J.A. (1983). Instructional scaffolding: Reading and writing as natural language activities. Language Arts, 60 (2), 168–175. Google Scholar | |
|
Beghetto, R.A. (2009). In search of the unexpected: Finding creativity in the micromoments of the classroom. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 3 (1), 2–5. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Bizzell, P. (1986). Composing processes: An overview. In Petrosky, A.R., Bartholomae, D. (Eds.), The teaching of writing. Chicago, IL: The National Society for the Study of Education. Google Scholar | |
|
Delpit, L. (1988). The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children. Harvard Educational Review, 58 (3), 280–299. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Hillocks, G. (1995). Teaching writing as reflective practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Mercer, N., Wegerif, R., Dawes, L. (1999). Children’s talk and the development of reasoning in the classroom. British Educational Research Journal, 25 (1), 95–111. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA) & Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) . (2010). Common core state standards for English language arts and literacy (section SL.9-10.1.C). Washington, DC: NGA & CCSSO. Google Scholar | |
|
Nystrand, M., Gamoran, A. (1991). Instructional discourse, student engagement, and literature achievement. Research in the Teaching of English, 261–290. Google Scholar | ISI | |
|
Pope, D. (2001). Doing school. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Read, K.E. (1958). A ‘cargo’ situation in the Markham Valley, New Guinea. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 14 (3), 1958. Google Scholar | |
|
Romano, T. (1987). Clearing the way: Working with teenage writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Google Scholar | |
|
Worsley, P.M. (1959). Cargo cults. Scientific American, 200, 117–130. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |

