Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

Prepared as part of a series applying recent research in oral and written communication instruction to classroom practice, this booklet examines the language interaction that takes place between student and teacher and between student and student whenever a geniune dialogue about an important event or problem occurs. The first section of the booklet examines the connection between dialogue and thinking and looks at classroom dialogue as: (1) a means of allowing teachers to find out if students know right answers, and (2) a conversational partnership. The section also discusses written conversations as a way of thinking. The second section explores in detail how dialogue works, describes the concept of interactional scaffolding, and reviews the conditions for dialogue. The third section explores whether dialogue and social interaction help students to think differently, and the fourth suggests ways teachers can engage students in more thinking together. The booklet contains a number of examples of student work. (FL)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert