I found this week’s readings to be really interesting. I have always hated discussions in class, especially college, because teachers put so much emphasis on the fact that your grade requires you to participate. For me, and I am sure this is true for many others, that adds so much stress to the class time that I get more worried what I am going to say than what is being discussed. I feel like I lose out on what others are saying.
I also know that when done correctly a discussion can be really powerful and beneficial. However, it is a hard to tell how to go about a discussion so that every one is attentive and participating. You have to determine the students who feel more comfortable just listening opposed to the students who are just not paying attention.
The Almasi article and the McGee articles both helped me see that there are affective ways of running a discussion where everyone can participate. I really liked how Almasi distinguished between a recitation and a discussion. The aspect of the recitation that really hit home with me was “students are called on by the teacher in order to participate and to maintain topic coherence” (37). That was the exact reason why I would get anxiety during “discussion” based classes.
However, McGee pointed out that in a response centered talk, which is a form of discussion, students get to react to the material instead of being asked questions that have right or wrong answers. They get to decide where the discussion goes. I think if you tell students that right off the bat they will be much more comfortable adding their ideas because they know they cannot be wrong.
I think these ideas would be very useful in my classroom because I can tell that the students in my classroom have a lot of great ideas. I have not seen much discussion done in my classroom yet so I am not sure if they have really lively discussions or if scaffolding is needed to draw out their ideas.
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I agree with you Karen, the articles were helpful in learning about the techniques of discussion. I feel the same way about discussion in college classes. When I am trying to think of things to say in class discussion I miss out on what other people are talking about. Sometimes I do have something interesting to say but I am to slow to respond and someone else takes the floor.
ReplyDeleteIt is a difficult balance trying to get everyone involved. The ones that are quiet can be called on but they can have that option to “pass” as talked about in the articles. As for the ones not paying attention, it is up to the teacher to make the discussion interesting and keep the pace from slowing down.
Another good way to get everyone involved was to have small groups instead of one large class. “One solution is to read books aloud to the whole group and have response-centered talk about the book with only one small group daily…” (McGee, pg 61) These small groups can break the discussion down into manageable dialoged. The other students could be involved with other center activities.
Karen I also have not seen any type of discussion activities in my placement. Right now the students are doing a lot of silent reading and commenting on what they read in their journals.