Summary of “Discussions in a fourth-grade classroom: using exploratory talk to promote children’s dialogic identities”

In this essay, the author first introduce us the concept of discussions about text, which is defined as conversations during which participants ask and answer questions of each other and the text in order to construct meaning. While the discussions happened in classroom are mainly the exchanges between the children and the teacher, and if the discussion pattern is open and inclusive, which means children can talk freely without bidding for a turn from the teacher(facilitator), we can call it a discourse pattern. In the contrast, there is a pattern called recitation, in which the teacher played a role of mediator. The use of discussions as a way to promote children’s inquiries in classroom settings has been focus of scholarships for several decades and the children’s experience in discussions about text can provide affective, social and cognitive benefits related to learning. Although knowing the benefits of discussions about text for children, some teachers face the problem that discussions may begin well, but after several minutes, the conversations tend to lose their focus or stray from the content of the text. Then by the case of poppy discussion in fourth grade taught by Lisa, researcher explained that teachers can frame children’s discussions with exploratory talk, which can provide educators with a vital perspective that explains how children sustain their collaborative efforts to inquire about text and to create productive discussions. And the researcher adopted three analytic lens: linguistic elements, psychological dimension, cultural dimension and two theoretical framework: learning through dialogue, discourse and identity. After the research, the researcher found that when teachers use the grounded rules in exploratory talk, the children can better engage in the discussion and elicit their dialogic identities.