Abstract

Since Vygotsky’s ground-breaking ideas of the social aspects of learning, teachers and researchers have explored the social aspects of instruction and how they can support or interfere with learning. The ways teachers choose to interrupt their students’ literacy process are part of teachers’ interactive instructional choices when teachers try to scaffold students involved in reading or writing that is difficult for them. To change this type of responsive, unplanned instruction it takes more than a one time lesson or inservice. It takes ongoing support for teacher change. <p> This study documents the changes in six teachers' understanding and use of interruption in their scaffolding decisions. The teachers videtaped their small reading groups and used these tapes to anchor their discussion of how to understand and to improve their scaffolding decisions using interruption decisions. Interruptions also formed the focus of readings and videotape observations. Transcripts of these discussions and reflections after the videotape sessions document teachers' experiences and changes. Findings show the ways these teachers changed and did not change over the semester. Teachers' voices talk about the decision-making choices and issues that these teachers found useful and/or problematic during the study. This format is recommended as a useful way to improve the social and interactive elements of on-the-spot decisions made during reading groups during ongoing professional development.</p>