Classroom Talk

I am placed in a 1st grade classroom which focuses greatly on Math, Language Arts and Reading.  The class is very engaged and keeps students involved, however, I do not see much discussion. For math, it usually begins with the teacher teaching the concepts and demonstrating practice problems as well as the first few problems from a worksheet they have received. Once the demonstration is over with, the students are given time to finish the worksheet on their own. Here, there is not much classroom talk or discussion taking place. For Language Arts, however, I do see some discussion, but not much. I have seen a couple times where the teacher reads the same book a couple times throughout one week. For each time she reads it, the students will be asked to focus on on specific part of the book, whether it be the language used or items mentioned, and they will discuss those things afterward. It could be some things like rhyming words, or even what animals eat. The students will sit in the "reading corner," where they listen to the teacher read the story as they sit on the floor. The teacher will follow the story with questions. I do not see students feeding off of on another, like we talked about in class however. I think that because this is a first grade classroom, a discussion like that would be much too difficult for a class like mine. The students in this class would be too talkative about other things that have nothing to do with the story, and it would become chaotic. To start a discussion where the kids sort of "lead" it with their own questions would take lots of instruction and practice and it may not even turn out how it is intended to. I think involved discussions are great, but maybe not for lower elementary classrooms such as my own.