Grand Conversations

These are discussions that are held after reading a book, story, or other text in order to respond, connect, or reflect on what was read.  Grand conversations differ from traditional conversations because they are student centered.  This way it is the students that discuss rather than having a teacher lead and do most of the discussing.

Instead of students raising their hands in order to speak, they wait until there is a lull in the conversation and then speak their mind.  There is very little talking from the teacher during these discussions.  This way it is the students' ideas and thought rather than the teacher's.

There are 2 parts to grand conversations.  The first, open ended, is where students talk about their reactions to the text and the comments direct the conversation.  The teacher also also shares their responses, ask questions, and provide other information.  The second part is when the teacher focuses the attention of their students on 1-2 topics that were not discussed during the first part.

There are also 8 different steps to the instructional procedure of grand conversations that can be found below.

1. Read the book - Students read or listen to a story (or part of a story).

2. Prepare for the grand conversation - Think about the story by writing in reading logs or drawing pictures.  This is a good thing to do when students are shy (it will allow them to see their thoughts so it might be easier to talk about in discussion).  This step is also optional.

3. Have small-group conversations - Form small groups of students to discuss text before meeting as an entire class so that they become more comfortable with sharing thoughts and ideas.

4. Begin the grand conversation - Come together as a class in a circle so that everyone can see each other.  Teacher then begins the conversation by asking, "Who would like to begin?" or "What are you thinking about?"  The rest of the conversation is controlled entirely by the students.

5. Continue conversation - When a student introduces a new idea classmates talk about it, share ideas about it, ask questions about it, and take quotes from the text in order to make points.  A new idea is then introduced.

6. Ask questions - These are questions asked by the teacher in order to direct the conversation on points that were missed during the discussion.

7. Conclude conversation - Summarize the conversation and draw conclusions about the text after all the big ideas have been discussed.

8. Reflect on the conversation - Students now write in their reading logs (either for the 1st or 2nd time) about the ideas that were talked about during the grand conversations.

Grand conversations are a great way to build a classroom community.  For more information concerning grand conversations, please read pages 436-437 in Literacy for the 21st Century:  A Balanced Approach by Gail Tompkins.