In a sociolinguistic study of five transcripts of high school discussions, two analyses were conducted. The first was a detailed qualitative analysis of the data, which combined paralinguistic features with three perspectives: a speech act analysis, a conversation analysis, and an interaction analysis. In the second, more quantitative analysis, the relative frequencies of various verbal interactional patterns, the use of topic control, and other conversational management factors were tabulated and compared. The results of these two micro-analyses revealed three models of discussion: discussion as course-covering, discussion as integrating, and discussion as expressing. Each model was then examined and compared with the others in four respects. Although no necessary and exclusive one-to-one match between verbal interactional pattern and model of discussion was explicated, a strong relationship between models of discussion and certain kinds of verbal interaction was demonstrated. The results suggest that (1) the question/answer format is associated with the subject-matter oriented course-covering model; (2) lack of strong topic control plus a focus on expression of feelings, observations, and opinions is associated with the student centered expressing model; and (3) combinations of explicit positive evaluation moves and of integrative questions and statements are associated with the integrating model. (The major portion of the paper is devoted to the analyses of the transcripts and interactions.) (EL)