Literature Study Groups with At-Risk Readers: Extending the Grand Conversation

As schools heed the ever-widening call to involve students with quality literature, we are forced to confront two questions. The first refers to the grand conversation (Eeds and Wells, 1989) alluded to in the title of this article: How do we enable literature study groups to engage in mutual discussions of ideas (which constitute the grand conversations described by Eeds and Wells) rather than teacher-led inquiries about surface meaning (which Eeds and Wells characterize as gentle inquisitions )? The second refers to an issue of equity: How do we provide equal access to quality literature for students with limited reading ability? This article describes the attempts of one school district to extend the grand conversation of literature study groups to students with reading difficulties