Negotiating Meaning in Classroom Literature Discussions.

Abstract

Cmily hold about literature, with significant implications for those who teach it. If literature is composed of living words, then one could argue that the meaning of literature is dynamic rather than fixed. Literature study as a search for meaning may then become an enterprise of negotiation between text, reader and, often, the author. In schools, the relationship configures somewhat more broadly to include negotiations between teacher and students and among students themselves. In this article, I examine the issues involved in negotiating meaning in literature discussions, issues that emerged through a study with a small group of students in which the negotiation process was made public. The medium for negotiation was talk. ©2001 International Reading Association (pp. 510-518)