The Oral Component

The shared inquiry approach to learning is based on the idea that many minds working together can achieve more insight into a rich work of literature than could any individual working alone. The interpretive reading, writing, and discussion activities enable students to ask questions and try out tentative ideas. Freed from the need to produce "right" answers, students quickly discover how collaboration stimulates individual thinking and how the enjoyment of literature is enrichd when ideas are explored within a community of readers.

Every activity provides a format for students to express their own points of view, take in the ideas of others, and build interpretations. This process begins with the sharing of responses after the first reading. Here, children can clear up any misunderstandings or factual errors, as well as introduce ideas that they will want to consider further. Other activities — such as the discussion of the at-home questions, dramatizations, and Interpreting Words — provide frequent opportunities to work orally. This means that even students whose reading and writing skills are developing more slowly than those of their classmates can participate fully in understanding the selection and voicing their opinions.

The culminating oral activity in the Junior Great Books program is Shared Inquiry Discussion. In this activity, students focus on a substantial problem of meaning in the story. Suided by the teacher's questions, they build well-supported interpretations in an atmosphere of cooperation. Discussion usually includes a textual analysis, in which the teacher helps students examine a particularly rich or challenging passage line by line. Shared Inquiry Discussion enables students to learn to weigh the merits of opposing arguments and to modify their initial opinions. By trying out and testing a number of ideas, students also learn that the best interpretations are those that can be explained with reasons and supported by textual evidence.

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