Troubling teacher talk: The challenge of changing classroom discourse patterns

The middle years are a crucial stage of schooling where the range in student achievement widens and progress for some students slows significantly (Cairney, Buchanan, Sproats & Lowe 1998, Hill & Russell 1999). Despite moves towards middle school reform and improved literacy standards, there remains a gap in literacy provision for young adolescent learners, particularly those defined as ‘educationally disadvantaged’ or ‘at risk’ (DEETYA 1998, Masters & Forster 1997). Many literacy intervention programs offered to underachieving adolescents fail to articulate to mainstream curriculum and assessment practices, or to scaffold students adequately in meeting the literacy demands of an increasingly abstract and specialised curriculum (Christie 1990, Unsworth 2001). These often lead to a differentiated and limited curriculum which may compound educational disadvantage and maintain stratified outcomes. This article investigates a mainstream and intervention literacy pedagogy designed to improve the outcomes of disadvantages learners while at the same time accelerating the progress of all students in the middle years.