EDC423 Transcript Assignment 1
For this task, you will be conducting a discussion with a group of students in grades 3-6. Please
do the following:
1. Secure permission to videotape or audiotape a text-based discussion with a group of
students (8 or more would be ideal) in grades 3-6.
2. Select a text that you can read or that students themselves can read in 15-20 minutes.
3. Choose an expository (informational) text about an interesting person or topic. For
example, you might choose a text about weather or insects, or a chapter from a book
about the planets. You can use a tradebook or an article from a children’s magazine such
as Ask, Muse, Odyssey, National Geographic Kids, Time for Kids, or a section of a
science or social studies text book.
4. Prepare questions to ask students AS they are reading or listening to the text.
5. Audiotape the discussion
6. Transcribe the discussion.
Use this format for your discussion transcript:
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Your name and the date of the discussion
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Introduce text: Explain what the students are reading and discussing.
o For example: The group is reading the story “Slower than the Rest, by Cynthia
Rylant. The discussion takes place as the story is being read.
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Introduce students: Note the students’ grade and the number of boys and girls. Tell
anything else you know about the students, such as reading achievement, first language,
socioeconomic status, racial/ethnic background.
o For example: Eight fifth graders participated in this discussion, four boys and
four girls. The students are all White. All of the students are from middle-class
homes where English is the only language spoken.
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Transcription: Play the audiotape and type each word in the discussion, including
What students read
Your comments or questions
Students’ comments or questions (you will use ‘student 1,’ ‘student 2’ etc., not students’
actual names)
NOTE: You can type the text, or photocopy it and paste it into your transcript.

For example:
Terry Deeney
Discussion Date: 10/23/2009
Text: The students are being read to from an issue of AppleSeeds Magazine called, Amazon
Adventures. The title of the article is “Encounters with Encantados.”
Students: This is a group of 5 white, middle class students (3 boys and 2 girls) who are in the
fourth grade. I haven't been able to discuss their reading achievement level with their regular
classroom teacher yet. Some of the students seemed to have had prior knowledge about the topic
being discussed in the text.
Teacher: Hi boys and girls!
Students: Hi!
Teacher: I brought in an article today that I would like to share with you. I want to read this to
you and ask you some questions. Please feel free to answer the questions or add comments as
we read. Okay, so the name of this issue of the magazine is called Amazon Adventures.
You’re traveling to a world that is full of water. In the Amazon River basin, the wet season lasts
half the year. During the rainiest part of the wet season, from March through May, it rains every
day.
Teacher: Do you think you would like it if it rained everyday?
Students: (Together) No.
Student 1: Couldn’t have recess.
Teachers: Oh yea, that’s true, you’d have to stay inside. Okay let’s continue.
It doesn’t rain all day, but it rains every day. Sometimes the rains last less than an hour, and
then the bright hot sun comes out to burn your skin. But every day, there is some kind of
downpour. The wet season is the best time of year to explore the Amazon. You’ll soon see why.
So bring a poncho!
Teacher: Does anyone know what a poncho is?
Student: A little raincoat that keeps you from getting wet.
Teacher: Yup! It keeps you dry.
On your expedition, you will watch the rain remake this jungle world. Swollen by rainwater, the
Amazon River and its many branches (smaller rivers called tributaries) overflow their dryseason banks.
Teacher: What does that mean, anyone? Those were kind of big words.
Student 2: Water fills all the empty parts that are dry.
Teacher: That’s right, it used to be dry but.
Student 2: It’s kind of like a big pool with water.