This chapter presentsan analysis ofthe data. I first provide an overview of the
instructional sequence, then present an analysis of the data, along withmyreflectionsduring
each stage ofthe instructional sequence.
On March 1, 2018, the 4th graders at Alaska Native Cultural Charter School in Anchorage
started literatureconversations withTwo OldWomen. This is a storywritten by VelmaWallis
that is based on aGwich'inAthabascan traditional oral narrative. This retelling is about band of
Gwich'in people along theArcticCircleinAlaskathat is in survival mode during a harshwinter wherefood isscarce. With difficult decisions to make, withnotenough food forthe band andto ensure thatthemajorityofthetribe survives, the chief left theold women behind to die. This
awardwinning story is wellknown in Alaskaand is usedwithinAnchorage School District
(ASD) middleschools. Based onthisbackgroundknowledge, I had to format this process with
Two Old Women with specific scaffoldingin placetoassistthe4thgraderswithhigherlevel
literature. This is the basis formyresearch questions: 1)What meanings do students make during collaborativediscussions of culturally relevantliterature?;2) What is the role ofthe teacher during these collaborativediscussions?
Overview of the Instructional Sequence
Aswithmostshared reading events, we followeda familiar process to introduce this
traditionalstory. I handed outcopiesofthe book andalog booklet (for student notes). Each
student kept a copyin their deskand a copy of the book logto write notes per chapter. Before
reading Chapter 1, we previewed the book by lookingat the cover. Studentswere askedtoflip
through the book by skimmingand scanning. Afterwards, I read the synopsis on thebackofthe
asked students totalktotheir shoulder partner. Students turnedandtalkedto a neighbor and
discussed betrayal, friendship, and survival.
After the students' partner discussions, I beganto read Chapter 1 out loud withno
discussion. It was important forstudents to hearthe storyfirst, especially struggling readers, to
focus onmeaningandnotdecoding since this bookis readat the middle school in my school
district. This was typically a two-day processwiththe pattern of teacher readaloud first and
followed by anindependent read perchapter. The followingdayafterlibrary onMarch2, the
studentsreread Chapter 1 and filled outtheirnotes. StudentGroups 1-3 wereaskedtodetermine jobs on their own and write intheir notes. Thesejobs changed from chapter to chapter through
negotiation and self-determination andallowed students to view the story through a different
lens. As stated above, this was part of the scaffolding of thetextandto have students follow
literature-based jobs. These jobs included the summarizer who summarizedthe main events of
the story. The luminary looked forimportant quotes in the story. The connector made
connections to self, text-to-text, ortextto world. Theconnector also accessed their fundsof
knowledge withthe events of the story. The vocabularyfinder found critical words, unknown
vocabulary, orwordsthat incited interest. The idea person was to find main ideasinthetextto
further explore. Finally, thediscussion director was to lead the discussions and allow all
participants avoiceinthe process. However, the expectation was that studentsread the story
twice (listening and re-reading), determine theirassignedjobsfor literature clubdiscussion, and writenotes. Thiswas alsothetimewhere students drewillustrationstohighlight their
visualizations ofimportant scenes aftertheyread. If students had trouble writing events from the chapter, Iasked them to drawan image first as astartingpoint prior to writing.
Figure4.1 below is an example ofKaren's writing forherjob in gathering ideas. Her illustration shows thewomen going backto a place wherefoodwas plentiful. She also wrote
questions, comments, and connections. This also illustrates theformatusedfornotes afterinitial
reading andbefore discussions. Students referred backtotheirnotes during discussions and
were critical forensuring dialogue(see Appendix D).
Figure4.1 ExamplefromKaren's notes
The first discussion with Group 1 occurred onMarch 5 after students readChapter 1 and
wrote their notes. The student book logfortheirnotes evolvedfrom prior experience and prior
work using reading organizers earlierinthe school year. I lookedat a variety oforganizers
onlinethatuseda whole sheet per literature club job, to whatstudents did earlierinthe year with the fictional Athabascan novelToughboy and Sister (Hill, 1999), tothe above sample of the
updated format thatendedup working forthe students.
Students read thenovel Toughboy and Sister by KirkpatrickHill and had familiarity with
summary, thoughtful prediction, illustration,favorite quote, important ideas, and“I wonder”
comments or questions. After initial practice using this halfsheet form, students then wrote their
own version in their reading composition notebook. During this processwhichlastedfrom
October to November, students read each chapterandwroteintheir composition notebookas a
centeractivity during reading block. This was thefirst novel that students read together as a precursor to Two Old Women (Wallis, 1993), withthe main difference beingalackoforganized
discussion time. Duringthe reading of Two Old Women (Wallis, 1993),students were asked to
read, write, and respond tonoteswitheach other during cultural reading time or during blocked
reading time withno teacher input. Thisallowed students time to read independently and
generate notesintheir notebooks. My goal was tohave all students reading the samestory to
gauge how they independently and collectively read, responded, wrote, and spokeabout the
events inthe story. All my fourth graders readTwo Old Women (Wallis, 1993) and had
discussions on Chapters 1-8.
Students inmy classwere familiar withusing graphic organizers before, during, andafter
the reading activities, sowritten response wasnotunfamiliar. Students usedorganizers based
on the text, purpose oforganizer, and whether the organizer was used as a general story mapping
sheet or whether it focused on specific reading strategies. Icreated my own organizers as
needed, andtheselognotesheets evolved basedonneed. In prior iterations, Ihadpredictions,
questions, connections, summary,unfamiliar words, andvisualizing. As I was preparingforthis
TARandTwo OldWomen(Wallis, 1993), I decidedtoadd comments, concerns, and questions.
After reading each chapter a second time, students knew to write in theirnotes as either the
discussion director, idea person, summarizer,word finder, connector, or luminary. The section
needed and writingthese down could help them prepare for the discussion, inaddition to the
literature job. Mythinking was their particularjob could focus students' conversations while
therest could generate additional topics fordialogue. This function proved useful asthe students
met for chapterdiscussions 1-8. Thisformat was lengthybutdoable since students usedprior
knowledge and experience asfaras readingstrategies, skills, andreading vocabulary were
concerned.
Based on theschool schedule, testing schedule, and culture week, this TAR processof
students' reading each chapter, note taking as written responses leading to oralresponses took
time with students starting onMarch 1,2019, and completing the Chapter 8 discussion on April
11,2018.
March6 was the start of Chapter 2. I read aloud thechapter before lunch, and students re-readthe chapter thatafternoon. The majority of students completedsome of their notetaking
that afternoon, but faced interruptions that affected completion of work. Students wrote
additional information in their notes inthe afternoon beforedismissal. On March 7, students
took their firstquizon thechapterthat assessed recall and analysis ofevents of story. All but
five finished that day. Students inGroup 1 had their second recorded conversation that day. I
facilitated less this conversation butcontinuedwith prompting and eliciting forcommentsto keepthe dialogue going. Students saidtheywere enjoyingthe process, understoodthe
directions, andunderstoodtheideaof jobs in their written notes. This process continued through
April 11,2018 with Chapter 8andthestudents' final discussionsin their literatureclub. The
wholeclass hada lesson onthe themes ofthe story on April 13 followed byproducinga theme
poster per student. They then completeda final project (a Bloom Ball), whichwas a visual
of the storywhich were then connected into aball shape. The studentsthen had two weeks to
work on their final projectof a 12 panel Bloom Ball which wascompletedon April 26, 2018.
In total, this was an eight-week process. The students read thechapters, wrotein their
notes, andmet insmallgroups todiscussthe events andtheir take-aways from the readings. I sat
and interacted withthe students, audio andvideo taped theinteractions, thentranscribedthe
events.
Analysis ofLiterature Club Discussions
Partof this TARprocess waschoosing whattext to read. As I stated before, the
curriculumat ANCCS focuses on Alaska Native Groupsper grade. Fourth grade is allabout the Athabascans of the interior andisthe main reason why I chose Two Old Women (Wallis, 1993). Storytelling is importanttoIndigenouspeople. Stories speak to thehistory ofthe people, events of importance, values andbelief systems, and how things came tobe. This also pertains to my TAR questions in that this is aculturally responsive unitthat addresses the Athabascan valuesof hard work, sharing, cooperation, and responsibility tovillage (or inthe case ofmy fourth grade students, responsibility totheir class). Sharing and cooperationconnect tomy research question related to collaborativediscussions. Responsibilitytovillagemeans understanding how things
came tobe, thehistory of the people through storytelling. Thesevalues thus ledtothefollowing
research questions: what meanings do students makeduringcollaborative discussionsof culturally relevantlyliterature andwhat is the role of theteacherduringthese collaborative discussions?
In order to addressthese questions, I examined data from Group 1: eight audio
teacher journal. Sample interactionsare showninAppendixB. Table 4.1 below shows how I organized mydata into data points in orderto see how theserelatetomy research questions. Table 4.1 Organization of Data Points
Text from book Dialogue Student Notes Comments
To see original text andgauge how students interpreted thetextintheir notes
To see how students' collaborative
dialogue contributes to co-construction of answers
To see how student notes addressed literature job aswell asquestions, comments, connections, concerns, topics of interest, illustrations and predictions
To see how teacher and student interactions,student to student interactions added to common understandings through prompting and eliciting
Duringtheinitial stages of analysis, I first transcribed all the audio dialoguesper chapter. Iwrote down what students said, how I responded,and how the dialogue evolved. Then I
watchedthethree video recordings per conversation tonote how non-verbal communication affected thedialogue. Finally, I reviewed students' notes andfound relationships between what the students read, wrote,and drew before discussions. This was animportant step inviewingthe modalities intheir written noteswithillustrations anddoodling. This illustrates whythe usageof notes as an organizational tool works with younger studentsin reading higher level text. These frames are used to organizetheir thoughts, focus on their jobs, andadd additionaldetailsto aid theirconversations. The upcoming analysis followsmy journey in this TAR process from ‘crickets' to ‘connections andinteractions.'
Crickets and “unsurity.”
In this beginning chapter called Hunger and cold taketheir toll, the band calledthe People are introduced alongwiththe maincharacters Sa'and Ch'idzigyaak. Inthis harsh environment, during thecold winter months,thePeople are starving. It was notunheardofin
these difficulttimes, to leavetheold and frail behind, so all resources benefit the younger and healthier. This is what befalls Sa' andCh'idzigyaak. What follows is an epic journey discussed by the fourth graders at ANCCS and what is demonstrated inTable 4.2 is a listofstudent names and their jobs inthisbeginning discussion.
Table 4.2 Chapter 1 StudentsandJobs
Student Job
KM: Kim Word Finder
KF: Karen Connector
TE: Tom Luminary
AA: Aaron Director
MD: Martha Ideas
GS: George Connector
The students decided their jobs, read and reread Chapter 1, took notes to be prepared, and began discussions. AsI turned on thevideo recorder, startedthe audio recordings, kidssat there and said nothing. Iwaited, butstill novoices, just “crickets.”
T: Ok,who's the discussiondirector?
Ok,youopen up toyourpaperplease...Ok, please start Aaron: thefirstone
Teacher: uh huh
Aaron: do I Say Chapter 1 stuff (whispers) Teacher: do what you think isnatural
do. Ialso realized that even the most outspoken and verbally adept students felt unsure aboutthe process in thebeginning. The students felt excitedyet nervous. They knewthattheyweregoing to be audio and video recorded. As I pressed the buttonsandstarted recording, the following occurred aftertheinitial introductions.
In this beginning section, I found myself taking overand asking students to state theirjob toget the dialogue started. Aaron, as the discussion director,began the dialoguewith “they shouldtalk about how, how to survive, they should say, weare not going to die, think about living andtrying.” Aaron wrote in his notes so he read this out loud. Thisis an example of how theirliteratureclub joballows studentsto refer back totheirnotes with astartingpoint in the dialogue. Eventhough he read the sentence out loud, it gave him confidencesince he was not thinkingwhatto sayrandomly, he wrotebeforehandto contribute to the overall dialogue as a whole. Students went aroundtakingturns andaddingto the initial statement thatthe women should be confident they can survive, thatthey spoke of trying to live ordie trying, and paraphrased at theendbyMartha, astheideaperson, saying “ah, theideaisto survive and be hopefulthat maybe oneof them will come back” (referring tothepack).
After theinitial exchange,the students went into thefollowing exchange where students went aroundthetableand just read whatthey wrote withtheirjob requirements with little discussions following. This is not what Ihadin mind. Inmy thinking, the students would know to discuss what they said, to addon to what was saidusingtheir own words oraddingin
additional information to the person's job.
Martha: I amtheidea person andmy idea is to survive and the elderbe, andtheboy took,took the bone, onthe tree andone other elder, the other elder grabbed it from, the main idea tosurviveandbetrayed,andtheyleft the elders
Karen: myjobisthe word finder,I found words likenomad,penetrating, and thatthat (?) Tom: myjobistheluminaryandI do importantquoteslike starr andthe council and I have arrived at thedecision
Tom:ok, what are some questionsthatyou wrote downthat you want to askyour teammates, go ahead Kim
Kim: do you think they're going to getthe hatchet to kill an animal?
Based on the above exchange,I learned that students knew to writedown their jobsbutdid not realize that this was a discussion topic, conversation starter, or an opening to add onadditional information from their individual points of view. I also learned that I had to interact orintervene more with these beginning dialogues to ensurethatinformationwasflowing in a way that benefiteddialogue and incorporatedthestudents' points ofview.
Around seven minutes in thefirstdiscussion,I prompted thestudents by asking “what's happening in Chapter 1?” Aaron responded asthedirector and said, “thepeople came to a decision to leave the older women behindbecause they don'thave much food so they gonna leave to anothercamp.” Martha responds in thefollowing(see Excerpt 4.1). See fulldialogue in Appendix B and Martha's role sheet in AppendixE.
Excerpt 4.1. Martha explains thebetrayal. Text from book
(Wallis, 1993, p. 3)
Dialogue Student notes Comments
The chief would instruct the younger men to set up shelters for these two old women each time the band arrived at a new campsite, and to provide them with wood and water. The younger women pulled the two elder women’s posses sions from one camp to the next and, in turn, the old women tanned animal skins for those who
Martha: what happened so far, the chief of the pack,I think,um, decides to leave theelders because it's winter time
and it's hardto get food,and um., what, um, theold women whenever
um, the younger
Illustration from Martha Aaronwriting in notes during dialogue Ideas in notes fromMartha
In looking at the relationship between what Martha read, whatshe wrote and drew, and finally what she said,Icould see howthis portion ofstudent dialogue focuses on the first major event ofthebook. Martha paraphrased from what shewrotein hernotes. She did not add “the ideaisto sevival.. .the main ideais to survivland betraad..” Shealso refers to thetext when she