After Shared Inquiry Discussion
In a great work of literature, ideas continue to resonate with our personal experience well beyond the time we finish reading. Even Shared Inquiry Discussion cannot give expression to all of the meanings suggested.
After Shared Inquiry Discussion, the leader's role is to allow for and, if appropriate, foster this continued interaction.
The leader needs to be sensitive to this process of extended interaction. Even after Shared Inquiry Discussion, it would be destructive for a leader to begin to explain the story. If students learn to expect that after discussion you will tell them what a story means, their exploration will always remain unsure and hesitant. Your explanation will be taken as the arbiter of whether they "got it right."
Teacher's Editions and Leader's Guides list a number of postdiscussion writing activities. These are designed to carry the student's interaction with the story to a different level. Many ask students to begin to evaluate the ideas expressed in discussion. Others create an opportunity for the student to play with the ideas and elements of the story in a creative way.
Time and student workloads usually don't allow for such writing after every story. But whether this extended interaction is explicitly and formally developed, we should remember that much of the beauty and power of these stories comes from their ability to renew our exploration of its themes, their ability to reward whatever attention we give with fresh ideas and insights.
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