Response Centered talk in my Placement

I think that the main type of talk showing up in my classroom placement is the I-R-E (initiate-respond-evaluate) or recitation type talked about in the Almasi reading. In general after reading a story to the class the teacher will ask a question wait for an answer either except that answer or ask for other answers and then move on.
I think that for a Response-centered talk to take place in my classroom placement a few different things should be done first. First, I would explain to the students what Response-centered talk is. Basically explaining that they will be discussing a book in groups and that they should maybe think of some questions about the story they would like to talk about in group, talk about how many different ways they can talk about a book (i.e. what they like/ disliked about the book, what they did not understand in the book, and their questions). I would also like to tell them to try and support their response to the text therefore providing the why to their response (i.e. I didn’t like when she did this because….). I think I would also really stress that there are no wrong answers everyone’s view of the reading is just as important as everyone else’s. I think that it would be very important for the class to establish norms for this type of discussion.
I think this is important because when I think of implementing this type of talk in my placement I think of all the broken friendships that could happen do to one friend disagreeing with another’s reading of the text. I could also see members being to afraid to participate for fear of not having the “right” reading of the text or being grouped with a stronger personality and just adapting their read to fit that students instead of challenging that persons view. I can think of a few students in my classroom I would like to watch for this in particular because I have seen them dominate a group discussion in the past and have even used threats to get others to agree with them (i.e. well if you don’t think this then we can’t be friends). Another student that comes to mind always believes she is right and will stop at nothing to prove it and even when proven wrong never fully agrees. There are a few students in my room on the opposite end of the spectrum who are emotionally fragile and I could see them having their opinion contested and them crying or not even participating for fear of being seen as dumb. I think that by just aware of these personality types and watching out for this behavior will allow me as a teacher to better facilitate groups containing these personalities. I think that a lot of this can be stopped by helping students to develop group norms to ensure that one person does not dominate or get left out.
-Tasha