Student 3: The aliens might come and shoot him.
Discussion Director: With a laser and my eyes would pop out. Lasers would go right through your body.

Performing the role of the researcher as participant/observer during the discussions revealed misconceptions of the roles and areas that required more modeling and mini-lessons. Students did not understand that one purpose of the Word Wizard role was to explore the meanings of new words together as a group. The other students in the group didn't seem to realize that they could share their understanding with their group members or that together they could use strategies such as referring back to the text, reading the word in context or looking the word up in the dictionary. Examples of this follow:

Student 1: That's what it says in the book, the New York Times.
Researcher: Do you know what the New York Times is?
Student 1: No.
Student 2: It's a big newspaper in New York City.

Word Wizard: Gesundheit, Spencer's ice-cream; I picked this because it is a weird word.
Researcher: Has anyone else heard of Gesundheit before?
Student 2: No.
Student 3: No.
Student 4: Yes, when someone sneezes, it means "bless you" in German.

Word Wizard: magnolia; I picked this because it is a new word.
Researcher: Do you know what a magnolia is? You could ask your group members what it is.
Student 2: Sound it out.
Student 3: (Looked up the word in his book.)
Word Wizard: (Reread the word.)
Researcher: Does anyone know what it is yet?
Word Wizard: a flower
Researcher: Does anyone know what it looks like?
Student 3: I think I do. (Student referred to illustration on the cover)