Classroom talk

Ok I'm a geek. I was at my brother's house last week and completely forgot to blog. So here is last weeks subject about scaffolding in the classroom. In my class of fifth graders most of the time their language is on level with their grade and age. There are a few children that will use "be"(as in "I be done with that"), "are" and "is" incorrectly. Most of the time if the correction is repeated back to them or pointed out then they will correct themselves. Sometimes during reading aloud I have also heard students stop and self correct. I have also heard students correcting other students, but mostly in a positive way, not too harsh. Some of the language is just where the students come from or where they live and what they hear at home and away from school, like several of the students have older siblings that talk"cool slang" so that gets picked up as well. My CT uses a lot of vocabulary and will frequently stop in the middle of a story of instruction and ask if anyone can explain a word or meaning of a phrase. This gives him a better idea and an informal understanding of where the the students are in their language understanding and acquisition. So, other than building vocabulary there is not much scaffolding in language in my classroom.
As far as the overall communication goes, me CT lets most students talk if what they are sharing deals with the topic at hand. During free time he does not mind low conversation between the students, as long as the subjects are school appropriate. I would not say the he dominates the conversation, he asks open ended questions and a lot of summarizing questions, like "so what happened ", "why do you think that happened" and informational and opinion questions that the students have to think about.