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Focusing Literature Discussion Groups

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on Comprehension Strategies
Jennifer I. Berne, Kathleen F. Clark
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he following conversation recently took place Our purpose here is to share how some teachers have
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in a fourth-grade classroom during a small- helped students to develop their strategy use in such
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group, peer-led literature discussion. The stu- groups. We first present the general model of litera-
dents were discussing Roberto Innocenti’s historical ture discussion group implementation that we have
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fiction picture book Rose Blanche, a story of a young
German girl who helps children imprisoned in a con-
centration camp near her home during World War II.
All student names are pseudonyms.
Josh: She did so.
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used in these classrooms. We then share examples of
the classrooms’ strategy-based literature discussions.
Finally, we offer conclusions about the potential of
these groups to further students’ comprehension
abilities.

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Emily: She did not.

Benefits of Peer-Led
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Josh: I know it’s bad, but she did. When I was

reading, I tried to think what else it could Literature Discussion
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be, but I couldn’t. Peer-led literature discussion has the support of a

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range of literacy researchers (Almasi, 1995; Au, 1995;

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Matthew: I think she did, too.

Emily: She died? That is what you think? What Raphael & McMahon, 1994; Roser & Martinez, 1995).
made you think that? Among its benefits are increased oral language devel-
opment (Almasi, 1995), engagement and enjoyment
Jessica: She died. It isn’t said, but that’s why there
of literature (Fox & Wilkinson, 1997), and feelings of
are no words on that page.
efficacy about the ability to understand and interpret
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Matthew: Yeah. You have to make an inference. text (Samway et al., 1991). Research has demonstrat-
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ed that students of diverse backgrounds and literacy

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In this set of exchanges, the students are working development levels benefit from literature discussion
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together to understand what happened one day when

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(Blanton, Pilonieta, & Wood, 2007; Boyd, 1997; Brock,

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Rose Blanche left her home to bring food to children 1997; Goatley, 1997; Grattan, 1997; Martínez-Roldán &
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suffering in the concentration camp and failed to re-

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López-Robertson, 2000). Our own research (Berne &

turn home to her mother. The author does not say that
Rose has died. Rather, the illustration shows her, and
German soldiers with rifles pointed, shrouded in fog
beside the abandoned camp. The author writes, “The
soldiers saw the enemy everywhere,” and “There was
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Clark, 2005, 2006) has implied that an important ben-
efit of literature discussion is its potential to help stu-
dents learn to comprehend, that is, to develop their
comprehension processes. Listening to students in a
range of grade levels, from a range of backgrounds,

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a shot.” The reader is left to draw the inference that suggests that these groups can serve as an instruc-
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a bullet from a skittish German soldier’s gun killed tional context for students to apply their developing
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Rose. knowledge of comprehension strategies.

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This short exchange from a literature discussion

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In the classroom highlighted in this article’s open-

group shows the power of such talk to help students ing, one in which we conducted a recent small-scale
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not only to construct meaning but also to identify the
manner in which that meaning was constructed. In
recent years, teachers with whom we have worked
have sought to make small-group, peer-led literature
discussions sites for comprehension strategy practice.
inquiry, the teacher’s goal was to set up opportunities
for her students to invoke and name comprehension
strategies as they talked together. It was her belief
that if students learned to both use and name com-
prehension strategies, they would not only be able to

The Reading Teacher, 62(1), pp. 74–79 © 2008 International Reading Association
74 DOI:10.1598/RT.62.1.9 ISSN: 0034-0561 print / 1936-2714 online
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understand better the particular text under study but the experiences of the adult discussion participants.

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also become better able to comprehend future texts. They then ask questions of the adults to clarify their

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She believes, as scholars have suggested (Palincsar &
Brown, 1984; Paris & Myers, 1981), that understanding
a strategy is only half the battle. Students also need
to know when and how to activate that strategy. As
Keene and Zimmermann (1997) noted, skilled read-
ers are those who can activate and employ strategies
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understanding of what should and should not hap-
pen in the group. On a subsequent day, the teacher
gathers a group of students together in a fishbowl—
that is, a teacher-involved demonstration group—to
attempt such a discussion. The teacher participates in
this model discussion by prompting talk that will be

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intentionally. This takes practice. beneficial for a focus on comprehension strategy use.

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Again, the participants in the group reflect upon their
experiences as the rest of the class listens and then

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A Model of Discussion asks questions. It is the purpose of both these groups

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to have students observe a group in action and reflect
Implementation

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In Table 1, we summarize the model of literature
discussion group implementation with which we
have had success. In the model, teachers first intro-
duce students to the practice of literature discussion
groups by discussing, generally, the format and the
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upon the language and behaviors of the participants.
Because the adults and the students who are model-
ing this behavior may be inexperienced, the teacher
debriefs both the participants and the observers by
telling what she believes was done well and what
could be improved.

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purpose. Next, teachers gather together with other Following the model discussions, the group cre-

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adults in a group to demonstrate talking about texts ates what we term an anchor chart for desirable and

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with special attention to comprehension strategies.

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undesirable behaviors that are based on students’

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Following this, the teacher debriefs with the group observation and discussion of the adult group and

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of adults and students. The teacher first asks the the teacher-involved demonstration group. A sample
adult participants how it felt to read and respond. anchor chart is shown in Table 2. Next, the teacher
Students have the opportunity to listen carefully to breaks students up into heterogeneous groups of four

Table 1

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A Model of Implementing Literature Discussions

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Time Procedure

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Day 1 n Teacher introduces idea of book discussion.

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Day 2 n Teacher brings together four or five adults to discuss a book in a demonstration group.
n Students observe adult-modeled book discussion.
n Teacher leads discussion on participant talk and behaviors in the model group.

Day 3 n Teacher and four or five students discuss a book as other students watch.
n Teacher facilitates discussion and strategy use as needed.
n Teacher leads a debriefing of student group.
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Day 4 n Teacher and students create anchor chart of desirable behaviors in the groups.
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n Teacher places students in heterogeneous (ability, gender, culture, or native language) groups
of four or five students.
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n Teacher provides students with strategy prompts (see Table 3) to help scaffold students’ talk
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in the groups.
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n Teacher monitors groups closely as students discuss and intervenes when necessary to
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prompt productive discussion and comprehension strategy use.

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Throughout n  eacher circulates among the groups as they talk and listens to, guides, and scaffolds the
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the year students’ strategy use, talk, and group processes as needed.
n During debriefings of literature discussions, the teacher helps students to refine their use of

comprehension strategies in the groups and their group processes, language, and behavior.

Focusing Literature Discussion Groups on Comprehension Strategies 75

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Table 2
A Sample Anchor Chart
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Desirable behaviors in discussion Undesirable behaviors in discussion

n Asking questions n Talking without listening
n Answering questions and telling why you thought n Giving an answer without telling why you thought
what you thought that way
n Listening carefully to other students n Being a know-it-all
n If you disagree, saying why n Disrespecting others’ opinions
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n Calling attention to strategies you use

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n Going back and looking at the text

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or five to try to have a productive discussion with the Table 3

assistance of both the anchor chart and a list of com-
prehension strategy prompts provided by the teacher.
One such list of prompts is shown in Table 3.
Finally, and critically, there is continual, contextu-
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Strategy Prompts to Support Discussions
n When I read, I thought...because....
n This is how I used my prior knowledge to help
me....

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n Let’s summarize what we know.

al reinforcement of these group practices over time.
n What questions did we have as we read along?
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Students need much practice to become facile in this n How did we use inferences to help ourselves
process. Teachers who introduce this structure to stu-
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understand?
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dents will need to spend considerable time guiding n What connections to other texts do we have?
n What different perspectives do we have
and scaffolding student participation, even after the
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initial set-up period described. about...?

An Adult Model Discussion

This is an excerpt of an adult model discussion that
took place in a fifth-grade class. The teacher has read
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aloud Patricia Polacco’s Pink and Say to the whole

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class. This picture book about the friendship of a

Reading
young black soldier and a young white soldier during
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specialist: I could think about what I know about

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the U.S. Civil War is framed as a story that has been

the Civil War to see if it is consistent with
handed down through Polacco’s family. The teacher
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has invited the building reading specialist, a parent
volunteer, a special education aide who works in
her class, and her student teacher to listen to the text
along with the students and to then participate in the
model discussion group following the reading. As the
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my experience, so I could reflect on other
books I have read or my own more gen-
eral background knowledge of that time.
Parent: I was thinking that same thing. Could this
be real? And I started to think about the

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adults talk, the students are directed to pay careful stories in my own family, so I was con-
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attention to what they say and what comprehension necting it to my experiences.

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strategies they invoke as they discuss.

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Reading Because adults have more reading and discus-

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specialist: I think this is a great story. I am trying to sion skills than children do, they are able to provide
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figure out if I really think it could be a real a useful model for students to follow. After the dis-
story. cussion, the teacher leads the class in a debriefing of
Student the discussion they watched, highlighting the places
teacher: What strategies could you use to help de- where strategies are invoked, named, or could be
termine that? otherwise noted.

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A Teacher-Involved Sam: And, you know, they gave them an apart-

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ment to live in, probably as part of the
Demonstration Group

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In the following exchange, the students discuss
Gennifer Choldenko’s Al Capone Does My Shirts.
A work of realistic fiction set during the Great
Depression, the story is about a boy, Moose Flanagan,
whose father accepts a job as a prison guard on
Alcatraz so that the family can be near a special
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job.
Kathryn: My great-grandparents worked at a state
mental hospital during the Depression.
They got a free apartment to live in—and
food, I think.
Sam: Okay, so the dad probably took the job be-

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cause there weren’t a lot of jobs to get and

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school in San Francisco. The school is for children
they got a place to live on Alcatraz and
with autism, a condition from which Moose’s sister

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some food.
suffers. In order to facilitate the kind of discussion she

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Teacher: More good thinking. You used your prior

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desires, the teacher participates. In the chapters read

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for this discussion, the family is introduced and get- knowledge—thought about what you
ting situated in their new circumstances on Alcatraz. knew—and then connected it to the
Flanagans’ situation. Now we have a better
One student is confused about why the family has
understanding of why the Flanagans actu-
relocated to Alcatraz.
ally moved to Alcatraz.
Sam: I don’t get it. It sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun,

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but why’d they have to move to Alcatraz? I Because students are new to this kind of group

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mean, the dad could work there, but why’d talk, the intervention of the teacher helps to direct

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the family have to move there? them to use their strategies in explicit ways and to re-

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flect on this use in a public way. When Allison makes

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Keisha: Hmmmm. Does anybody know anything

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about why they had to move there?
Keisha’s question implies that the group should con-
sider its prior knowledge, but students need a little
more focus to be successful. The teacher prompts
students to make connections to a specific kind of
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a connection to her prior knowledge, the teacher
names it and thus demonstrates for Allison and the
rest of the students what she has just done.
An Independent Discussion Group
In the following exchange, the students work inde-

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prior knowledge that she believes they likely have pendent of the teacher to discuss Louis Sachar’s nov-

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given previous social studies instruction. el Holes. When reading Holes, students often struggle

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to track events because the story of Stanley Yelnats,

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Teacher: Use your prior knowledge. Ask yourselves a young boy placed in a disciplinary work camp for

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the time period in which the story takes
place. I think that’ll help you understand
the Flanagans’ circumstances.
Keisha: Oh yeah—that was when the stock market
crashed and a lot of people lost all their
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ancestors, who may or may not be responsible for
Stanley’s unfortunate predicament. Within chapters,
students may be engrossed in the story of Stanley’s
trials in the work camp when the scene will suddenly
shift to a story from many years before. This small-
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money. It was like that for years. group discussion occurred after watching the adult
model discussion and after talking in groups multiple
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Allison: My great-grandparents were kids in the

times with the teacher’s assistance. Following these
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Depression. They talk about it sometimes.
groups, the students were led to reflect on the discus-
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They said jobs were hard to get. You kind

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sions by their teacher, who was able to direct them

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of took what you could get.

Teacher: That’s good thinking. You drew upon your
prior knowledge. Now, connect that infor-
mation about the Depression with reasons
for why the Flanagans moved to Alcatraz.
to remember the points of the discussion that were
most salient to comprehension strategy use and nam-
ing. The students also used the anchor chart of desir-
able behaviors that the class created to support their
discussions, and they had their list of conversation

Focusing Literature Discussion Groups on Comprehension Strategies 77

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and strategy prompts in front of them. In the excerpt, if teachers provide scaffolding and practice across
the students name and use the comprehension strat- texts and time, this focus on strategic reading will
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egy summarization to help them make meaning. help students to read increasingly difficult texts with
good understanding.
Davion: This was a really confusing chapter.
Aaliyah: Yeah, there was a lot going on.
Melinda: He kept switching back and forth. Yeah, Note
Preparation of this article was supported by the Shaw Fund for
first this kid’s digging and then he’s talking Literacy.
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about his relatives.

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Timothy: Maybe here we should summarize?

References
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Aaliyah: Let’s say what we know in order.

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Almasi, J.F. (1995). The nature of fourth graders’ sociocogni-

Timothy: So, first Stanley is at the camp digging away tive conflicts in peer-led and teacher-led discussions of
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literature. Reading Research Quarterly, 30(3), 314–351.

and getting blisters. At that point, he is at
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Melinda: Then we hear about his great-grandfather
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Like the teacher whose practice we describe
here, it is our belief that small-group, peer-led discus-
sion groups can be productive forums for students
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