Undergraduate Students

A study investigated the relationship between classroom discussion and literacy development in a college developmental reading classroom. It explored the implementation of C. Goldenberg's instructional conversation model (1992/93), focusing on the relatively untested assumption that discussion promotes reading comprehension, interpretation, and thinking. The applicability of a model originally developed for use with elementary school children to a new student population was also assessed. Subjects were 14 students (ages 17 to 70) enrolled in a critical reading class in a public university on the basis of their poor performance on their reading/writing placement tests. Six students spoke English as their second language, while two students had diagnosed learning disabilities. Each week they read an assigned text, wrote a summary and an elaboration, and prepared two questions for an instructional conversation (IC). Students rewrote their written summaries and elaborations for homework and handed them in at the beginnin