Mrs. Adams: Do you think there’s anything symbolic about their huts being circles
instead of squares?
Annie: No.
Emma: No.
Mrs. Adams: Nobody does? Like, you know think about a circle. It doesn’t have any
beginning or end. It just goes. It keeps going.
Annie: Yeah, until you get to the door.
Mrs. Adams: Huh. Okay. [Annie laughs.] I don’t know. I just wondered if it like
symbolized the tribe, the Olinka people more. 'Cause they just keep going, you know they talk about the roof leak, and all of their traditions and history and things like that.
Annie: Maybe it’s just easier to build it that way.
Mrs. Adams: Then why don’t we have circular buildings in America?
Annie: 'Cause ours aren’t made of mud.
Mrs. Adams: 'Cause we use wood and it’s hard to make the wood a circle?
Annie: Yeah.
In this conversation, Mrs. Adams attempted to get her students thinking about the sym-bolism of the circular huts, but they did not respond as she expected. She tried to explain her interpretation of the text, but the students did not agree. Either the students did not understand why the circular huts were symbolic, or they simply did not share Mrs. Adams’ interpretation of the text. Her effort to extend her students’ thinking misfired; as a result, the conversation moved to a different topic. The discussions that generated the most conversation were the result of questions asked by the students.
Student vs. teacher-led questioning. Suc-cessful discussions were sparked when the students posed questions that interested them but were limited when Mrs. Adams asked most of the questions. Questioning was the main strategy both Mrs. Adams and the students used to help construct meaning from the text.
Each student was required to bring a few questions for discussion to the group meetings. Many of these questions were asked to clarify details in the book or clear up con-fusing words. But when a student generated a question the others were genuinely interested in discussing, the conversation took off. At the end of the second group meeting, Mrs. Adams read a question Kevin had written on his discussion sheet that they did not have time to answer the first time they met.
Mrs. Adams: Kevin’s question was, “Why do you think this book is called The Color
Purple?” So, any ideas?
Emma: Bruises are purple?
Mrs. Adams: Ah, bruises are purple.
Kevin: That was a good question.
Mrs. Adams: That is a good question, and that’s a good response. Bruises are purple.
What makes you think of bruises when you think of her?
Emma: She gets beat.
Mrs. Adams: And she’s got a beaten spirit?
Emma: Mmm hmm.
Mrs. Adams: Good, okay.
Annie: Okay, I have a question. When they went to go and get the dresses, wasn’t one of the colors purple, like she wanted like red and purple?
Mrs. Adams: She did 'cause that’s how she thought Shug Avery would dress. And she
says Shug Avery looks like a queen.
This question was the only one during the meeting that prompted opinions from all of the group members (Sarah was absent for this discussion). Kevin was not able to reveal his thoughts because he didn’t want to ruin the book for his peers, but the conversation generated by Mrs. Adams, Emma, and Annie resulted in Kevin thinking of an answer to his own question. Emma and Annie presented two different ideas the group ended up cycling back to in their sixth meeting when the color purple was mentioned in the text again. The fact that the students were able to remember what they had originally said about the title early in their group meetings showed the conversation was memorable and important to their thinking about the book.
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