Classroom Conversation What do you think? No, you’re wrong! Classroom Conversation Discussion Types Preparing Successful Discussions Common-sense Rules Benefits & Problems A Discussion Rubric He’s wrong. Well, what about me? How would you feel? YES!
Types of Discussions General (gives students a chance to develop thinking, clear oral expression, and experience in posing and responding to questions) Guided or Directed (used to guide students through a series of questions to discover some relationship, principle, or result) Reflective (used to assist students in analytical skills, arriving at alternative explanations, finding solutions, or classifying ideas into major categories) Inquiry (used to help students employ reasoning skills to acquire new information with a minimum of help from the teacher) Exploratory (used to enable students to discuss controversial issues without fear of censure)
Preparing Successful Discussions set realistic goals determine type of discussion pay attention to thought processes required to achieve goals outline questions in light of required thought processes provide for variety of questions questions should be at student level prepare a novel introduction follow common-sense rules
Common-Sense Rules use wait time effectively move from divergent to convergent questions reinforce student answers throw back questions provide appropriate praise interrelate previous comments maintain positive atmosphere clarify statements with follow- up questions restate goal periodically engage all students take your time
Unresponsive Groups From time to time you will encounter unresponsive groups. Unresponsiveness will generally result from: Students not having read the assigned reading or Students having forgotten what they have read. When encountering an unresponsive group, call on people. NB: To make this course more enjoyable: Always read the assignments and take notes before class. Review the notes immediately prior to class. You are expected to INTERNALIZE the information, not merely read and forget.
Benefits & Drawbacks Benefits Drawbacks motivates individual students more likely to develop inquiry behavior in students teacher receives feedback from students an opportunity to engage all students in thinking scope of discussion can be rather broad - integration a good way to provide for review Drawbacks hard to conduct well might go astray can be time consuming might be monopolized
Critical Components All discussions conducted in this course must clearly include an alignment between the following components: Goal statement – at the very outset the discussion leader should state the goal of the discussion, and avoid stating the conclusion at which the students are expected to arrive. Discussion activities – the discussion leader should demonstrate those approaches described in the discussion scoring rubric. Informal summative assessment – at the end of the discussion the leader should attempt to ascertain if the stated goal has been achieved by the students.
A Rubric for Evaluating Discussions Defines important aspects of a good discussion effective initiation of discussion educational objective stated / achieved? equitable student participation quality of student responses students answer the questions question types / skills Uses an even-numbered scoring scale. Characterize quality performance from good to fair to poor to unacceptable.