Chapter 5 – Classroom Discussion
Ironically, as I was reading through this chapter on classroom discussions, many activities in this class as well as a few of my other classes were also focused on simulating and practicing meaningful classroom discussion. Participating in a variety of discussion activities from think-pair-share to the horseshoe continuum as well as reading through chapter 5 in the Zwiers textbook really solidified for me the impact classroom discussion can have on the type of learning that can take place. Even as university students and future educators, we too can at times forget how to stimulate discussion and discuss in an open-minded and non-judgemental manor and it was interesting to see the different ways our instructors managed and guided the discussion forum – especially when discussing hot topics such as assessment and corporate presence in high schools. Regarding this week’s reading, I was particularly interested in the 8 suggestions Zwiers discussed on page 115 about how to improve discussion-leading abilities as educators. Children lead by example, and if we as educators can be successful, open-minded discussers, then our students are likely to adopt those same strategies. I really liked the first strategy Zwiers mentions about motivating students with current issues, mysteries, and case studies – to list a few – because I think it’s really important to get students excited about discussion. We need to make it relevant for them and hook them in so that they will get excited about discussing. We do not need to limit talking about this such as Shakespeare just to the book, but also link it to current issues in order to make it more real and relevant for our students. Another suggestion I connected with in the reading was number 4 which talked about strategically redirecting tangential comments back to the main point of discussion. Often times children do have a lot to say, especially when excited about the discussion, and may go a bit off track. However, I do not think they should be punished for this by being made to feel like they answered or responded wrong. My grade 10 English teacher was great at doing this when we as a class would be discussing poetry or a novel we were reading. He never made it seem like our responses were wrong, even if they were quite off-track. He found some way to validate any response and then steer it back in the right direction, which I think was great because he made everyone feel like they were contributing to the discussion and it encouraged us to continue to participate. Finally, I really liked Zwiers last suggestion, number 8, where he suggests creating a list of class norms for classroom discussion. As tedious as this sounds, I think having the students contribute in deciding discussion etiquette will help them become more open-minded participants as well as hold them accountable when they do get fired up or opinionated about different topics. This way, everyone is clear about the expectations and will be more likely to follow them.