ABSTRACT
Classroom talk about text ranges from very brief student responses to teachers' questions, exemplified in the traditional initiation-response-evaluation (IRE) pattern, to an open floor in which students are free to express their ideas and views. In the IRE, students are responsible to the text, to be faithful to what the text says, and the teacher's role is to match what the students say to what the text says. The reduction or limitation of the teacher's role in classroom discussions is viewed as positive. Teacher talk greatly diminished with a concomitant increase in student participation. The teacher was very active, but in contrast to the activity the teacher showed in The Best Bad Thing lesson, this teacher's activity was directed toward responding to students and asking questions that required the students to put cognitive effort into making the information meaningful. Teachers needed to develop strategies to foster meaningful classroom discourse.
