I don't get to see a lot of student driven discourse in my sixth grade placing. The class really emphasizes a traditional lecture, recitation, and round robin reading style. They do incorporate interesting literacy related projects, but they are usually independent and don't incorporate cooperative learning. When students do ask questions or a discussion is started it represents an I-R-E format. Frequently, student ideas are glossed over or ignored altogether instead of expanded upon. It's frustrating to see this happen in the classroom, because I can see how many students would benefit from discussion.
As discussed in the McGee article, all students can benefit from response centered discussions because students can discover and construct new information together. In this class there are many students who struggle with the reading material and need extra help identifying important details and understanding the story. Other students need to be challenged to think beyond the surface level and develop a more critical eye. I know many students are not comfortable talking and asking questions to the class, but they could get the help they need in a comfortable, reassuring small group setting.
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I'm so sorry that you don't get to see much student driven discourse. I think it's really sad to hear that students ideas are glossed over or ignored altogether instead of expanded upon! I think we are so fortunate to be learning about student driven discourse so we can benefit our own children in our future classroom. It's great that you can see how students would benefit from discussion. I definitely agree with you about that because after learning about student driven discourse I see many different places where the teacher could have elaborated more with student discussion. Even thought it's frustrating to see the teacher's inability to direct a student driven discourse, I believe it's beneficial to observe the lack of so we know what we might do differently in our own classrooms.
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