This six-week qualitative exploratory case study examined the affordances of the iPad for students and teachers when used to video record discussions about literature. The 13 Grade 6 and Grade 7 participants self-selected their literature circle groups and their novels. Preparation for engaging in student-led literature discussions included specific teaching about participation in a literature circle discussion and a pilot study. Data included six 20-minute student literature discussion videos, students’ individual reflective videos made on the iPads, and individual participant interviews with the researcher audio recorded on the iPad. The student reflective videos were partly transcribed and the participant interviews were transcribed. The data analysis involved open coding of the videos and transcripts using a system of screenshots and written codes. The three codes that emerged most often and that were most relevant to my research questions focused on the concept of audience. The students’ behaviours, when videoing their discussions with the iPad, fluctuated through a continuum from acknowledgement of the teacher as audience to behaviours that suggested the teacher had been forgotten. The concept of audience also included the students themselves as mirrored in the screen, and an ‘other’ audience, which seemed to be YouTube. The findings suggested that the students’ shifting perspective of audience around the iPad screen, which also acted sometimes as a participant and a co-regulatory more knowledgeable ‘other’, seemed to contribute to their self-regulatory behaviours and to their observed and professed engagement. Overall, the analysis of the data revealed the use of the iPad for discussions about literature afforded students with opportunities to self-regulate their behaviours and discourse in ways they seemed to find engaging, and afforded me an unobtrusive window into their discussions, which provided an additional perspective on the students and their work. / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to describe and interpret young adult ESL (English as a Second Language) students‘ participation in discussions of literature in a high-intermediate level reading classroom at a university-affiliated ELP (English Learning Program) program. Additionally, this study explored the nature and characteristics of talk generated by ESL students within the context of literature discussions. Naturalistic methods of data collection were employed in keeping with the constructivist paradigm, including classroom observations, audio and video recordings, transcripts of audio and video recordings, field notes, interviews with the teacher and students, teacher resources, and student artifacts. This naturalistic inquiry drew from qualitative traditions in its design, and the study was further guided by grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) and discourse analysis. The study findings indicated that literature discussions were structured by six stages: (1) reading at home, (2) setting up and review, (3) students redefining the tasks, vii (4) students doing the tasks, (5) sharing with the class, and (6) taking in-class quizzes. Analysis revealed that these sequenced stages that allowed for a shifting of roles and positions between the teacher and students and among students enabled students to have regular and extended opportunities for talk and interaction. The findings of the study demonstrated that the student-to-student exchanges featured more discursive talk as the students were encouraged to construct meanings collaboratively and to engage in interactive discourse with one another. The implications of these findings in terms of teaching as mediation and the nature of talk in ESL classrooms are discussed. / text

Det huvudsakliga syftet med studien är att undersöka hur lärare implementerar litteratursamtal i sin undervisning samt vad de har för tankar om användningen av litteratursamtal, exempelvis hur de ser på litteratursamtalets funktion eller begränsningar och möjligheter. Eftersom Aidan Chambers anses som en auktoritet inom ämnet ”diskutera vad man läst”, relaterar vi vårt resultat och analyserar utifrån Chambers tankar om boksamtal. Ett sådant ”samtal” bör enligt Chambers innefatta frågor om personliga upplevelser samt oklarheter och mönster läsaren stött på i texten. Resultatet grundar sig på intervjuer med tre yrkesverksamma lärare och observationer av respektive lärares elevgrupp vid undervisning i litteratursamtal. Utifrån det insamlade materialet går det att utläsa att lärarnas uppfattningar ibland går isär, liksom deras sätt att undervisa. Vad som också framkommer i resultatet är att teori och praktik inte alltid stämmer överens. Det som framkom i intervjuerna var följaktligen inte alltid synligt i observationerna. De slutsatser som kan dras är att undervisningen på skolan som undersöks inte helt bedrivs i enlighet med Chambers, men att det ändå finns potential i upplägget. Lektionerna som observerades har flera kopplingar till reciprok undervisning där Barbro Westlunds material om Läsfixare är särskilt framtonande.

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