Using literary conversations to design stimulating learning environments for all elementary students

Abstract

The paper presents results of the LemaS-GRiP project. The focus lies on literary conversations in inclusive literature lessons in primary schools. These conversations link individual aesthetic experiences and interests with a jointly responsible development of literary interpretations in exchanges between pupils and teachers. Based on a Literary Classroom Conversation in a fourth grade, we can show in a preliminary analysis how learners enter into the open-ended process of understanding and approach the ambiguity of the text. At the same time, all participants have a growing responsibility towards the text and for each other. In doing so, they are partly dependent on a competent other, who supports them in approaching the ambiguity of the text in the sense of scaffolding. Central instrument was a multimodal interaction analysis of videotaped lessons following the principles of the documentary method.