Discussion in Diverse Middle School Social Studies Classrooms: Promoting All Students’ Participation in the Disciplinary Work of Inquiry

Abstract

Background/Context: Although calls for rich discussion and argumentation about disciplinary texts and content are frequent, research indicates that in classrooms such discussions are rare. When discussions do happen, few students tend to participate. Purpose/Focus of Study: We look to exemplar teachers’ classrooms where a range of ethnically, racially, linguistically, and academically diverse students participated substantively in discussions throughout social studies inquiries to understand what those teachers do to support broad and substantive student participation in discussion, knowing that discussion promotes student learning. Research Design: Using video recordings of class sessions, we conducted discourse analysis and used case study methods to examine classroom discourse over 20 days of inquiry across an academic year within the context of a larger, design-based research project. Findings: We identify how two teachers build toward and facilitate three types of disciplinary, whole-class, text-based discussions: Sensemaking, Argumentative, and Culminating Argumentative. We analyze the instructional work involved in preparing students for discussions, in situating discussions within a larger context of inquiry, and in facilitating discussions in the moment, focusing on the intellectual work being done when students take extended turns of talk that build on what has been said before. Conclusions/Recommendations: This work contributes a broader understanding of how students’ full participation in disciplinary discussion and argumentation can be supported in the context of inquiry. We draw implications for enabling all students to participate in inquiry, with particular attention to students learning English or needing support for reading complex sources.

Reframing history and listening to students through Learning Labs professional development

“…Teachers hypothesized that students without an elbow partner did not participate in whole group discussions as much as students who had an elbow partner. This point is consistent with findings of our previous research in inquiry-focused classrooms (Monte-Sano et al, 2021). Teachers talked about what they could do differently in the afternoon co-teaching classrooms to support broader student participation (see Figure 4 for discussion excerpts).…”

Historical Argumentation: Watching Historians and Teaching Youth

“…It stands to reason, then, that students who learn to use sourcing when analyzing historical evidence found in a diary entry, a letter, a photograph, a movie clip, a novel, a written newspaper account, an online newspaper account, a tweet, and a website might be better prepared to engage in sourcing on their own when studying a current event using a webpage or social media. And current research has shown that such is true when accompanied by class discussion (Monte-Sano et al, 2021). Wineburg and Reisman (2015) expressed their expectation that young people’s internalization of sourcing could be life changing.…”

Conceptualizing Dialogic Literary Argumentation: Inviting Students to Take a Turn in Important Conversations

“…The value of the ADI has also been explored by De La Paz et al (this issue) with eighth-grade students with and without disabilities who wrote arguments about the scientific phenomena they were exploring. Although Monte-Sano et al (2021) makes no specific reference to dialogic teaching, her studies of teaching and learning history argue for the value of “disciplined inquiry” to support the preparation of citizens. Goldman et al’s (2016) description of “literary reading core constructs” includes “viewing literary texts as open to dialogue, privileging interrogating presumed authorial intent, valuing communities of readers who dialogue with one another within and across time” (p. 228).…”