Literature Discussion in Cyberspace: Young Adolescents Using Threaded Discussion Groups to Talk About Books
After all, the goal of literature circles is to have natural and sophisticated discussions of literature...
(Harvey Daniels, Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student-Centered Classroom, 1994, p. 75)
| This article explores the methods and purposes for using electronic threaded discussion groups with young adolescents as an enhancement to literature circles. In literature circles, students work together to choose literature they wish to read and explore collaboratively. The face-to-face discussion enables students to explore features of the literature they have chosen to read. Very often, these discussions are successful, but there can be problems, too.
Typically, for example, each student is assigned a role, such as discussion leader, vocabulary master, connector, or illustrator. Role sheets outline specific cognitive tasks for each student to take on during discussion, thereby providing a support framework or scaffold for the discussion. However, students can become reliant on these role sheets, and spend the discussion simply reading off their sheets to one another. There is sometimes very little interaction between the students: No one questions another, cites anything directly from the story, or say, “Hey, I hadn't noticed that.” At first, when students are beginning their explorations and moving toward a truly sophisticated discussion, this may be OK, but over time, students must make the transition from pro forma reading of the role sheets to authentic discussion of the text at hand. In the second edition of Literature Circles, published in 2002, Harvey Daniels offers several ways to avoid overreliance on these scaffolding tools: for example, he suggests that teachers assign roles but not use the role sheets, or that they indicate that the sheets should be used only in a “conversational emergency.” |
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In addition to Daniels’ suggestions, this article proposes the use of threaded discussion groups as a means to promote more meaningful discussions among students. For the past three years, my eighth-grade students and I have been exploring threaded discussions in English and social studies classes. With Dana L. Grisham of San Diego State University, I have been investigating the effects of the threaded discussion on students’ attitudes and motivation, their reading habits, and their writing abilities. In addition to sharing their work with literature circles, my students have also helped me understand more about the dymanics of the online medium we are using.
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About the Author
T. DeVere Wolsey (e-mail) teaches English language arts and history at Elsinore Middle School in Lake Elsinore, California, USA; he also teaches courses in second-language acquisition and content reading methods at National University in San Diego, CA.
Citation: Wolsey, T.D. (2004, January/February). Literature discussion in cyberspace: Young adolescents using threaded discussion groups to talk about books. Reading Online, 7(4). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=wolsey/index.html
Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted January 2004
© 2004 International Reading Association, Inc. ISSN 1096-1232