Uses results of case study of children using collaborative talk in text-based task to argue there is no clear distinction between what is "off" or "on" task talk. Based on Vygotsky's theory of social basis of thought, (it develops from internalism of speech and functions within various relationships), evidence shows children…

Describes how one first-grade teacher makes democracy happen in her classroom. Describes the teacher's role in setting up and supporting a democratic classroom where students and teacher work together to make decisions about the learning that goes on in the class, and in determining a supportive physical environment with materials available to all…

Describes a first-year college composition course and the daily preparatory writing assignments, "inquiry response papers," that form its core. Describes how these assignments, in which students respond to their homework reading, have led to a collaborative, dialogic classroom where students realize and express their own voices, and have fostered…

Uses illustrations from a graduate seminar in the teaching of writing, a high school classroom, and a seventh-grade classroom to show the value of teacher-student dialog over teacher monologue, and to show teacher responses that resist the impulse to launch into the teacher's monologue, and instead invite dialog and turn the work of meaning-making…

Offers a case study of three 11th-grade students who viewed tapes of their class discussions and commented on their own involvement. Argues that students are silent for wide-ranging reasons; that students who are quiet may be learning; and that teachers should consider multiple means to spur students' thinking. Lists ways to help students speak…

Summarizes case studies developed by a group of collaborating educators. Investigates ways of speaking that encourage students to formulate insightful questions about science topics and express their own ideas during reflective discussions. (Contains 68 references.) (Author/YDS)

Offers the author's reflections on how and why she adjusted her limited implementation of whole language teaching by integrating literature and writing, using novels that reflect issues of significance to students, having students write for real audiences, and creating democracy in the classroom where students think, discuss, and act critically on…

This article offers teachers 12 suggestions for dealing with cursing by students, such as teaching students the differences among assaultive cursing, racial insults and slurs, lewd and sexually assaultive insults and slurs, and profanity and epithets; differentially reinforcing less offensive profanity; trying self-mediated interventions; and…

Investigates an aspect of teacher talk--the teacher's provision of feedback or follow-up--and the role it plays in English-as-a-Second/Foreign Language classroom discourse. Draws on transcript data from a secondary school classroom in Tanzania to illustrate a teacher's follow-up moves, where these moves form the third part of a chain of…

A study examined the effect of an observation-feedback intervention on the rate of a teacher's behavior-specific praise of nine elementary students with emotional and behavioral disorders and the effect of increased rates of behavior-specific praise on students' on-task behavior, which increased when behavior-specific praise increased and…

Explores different ways of transcribing a fragment of classroom discourse, showing how these ways determine the resulting analysis and what emerges from it. Identifies three distinct "frames" of classroom interaction, which are referred to as lesson, lesson-support, and commentary. (Author/VWL)

Approximately 600 8th-grade pupils in 25 classrooms in Eastern Slovakia evaluated their math and Slovak language classes for creativity on the Origin-Pawn Questionnaire. Results were correlated with teacher observations by trained observers. Results are discussed in terms of classroom activity patterns and climate differences related to activity…

This plenary address reviews a number of recent Australian-based research studies and suggests that these studies lead to the inference that students learning English as a Second or Foreign Language need to be given room to communicate. Argues that teachers should give due regard to individual student differences, authenticity, cultural congruence…

Reanalyzes classroom discussion data using a social-enactment theoretical orientation and a substantive framework based on gendered classroom interactions, multiple subjectivities, and power relationships. Analyzes actions and interactions of two highly visible 12th graders in during an academic year in an Advanced Placement English class. Finds…

Suggests a systemic functional linguistic (SFL) approach offers a distinctive perspective and characterization of content based language learning. Analyzes grammatical scaffolding by a teacher of causal explanations that form work by a group of second language students on a project on the human brain. Shows how SFL analysis reveals different…