This article reports on a study of high- and low-gaining teachers' use of dialogue based on a multicomponent framework of comprehension strategies known as POSSE. Although designed to emphasize reciprocal dialogues between teacher and students, low-gaining teachers appeared to maintain control of much of the discourse. More importantly, consistent patterns of response were found within the high- and low-gaining teachers. High-gaining teachers spent considerably more time scaffolding student responses, modeling reading strategies, encouraging risk-taking, and transferring control of the reading process to students. Low-gaining teachers spent most of their time evaluating students' responses.
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