I love Lang’s stories. I can feel his excitement as he describes the “first [lecture] question that will blow their [his students’] minds” (Lang p.85). I can imagine the skip in his step, as he buys his latte and walks to class in anticipation of the best in-class discussion his students have ever experienced. And I can feel his pain (I’m shaking my head and making a sad face right now) as he walks away from class wondering “what the hell happened.”
Engaging students in discussion is an interesting challenge. I use the work interesting because sometimes it isn’t a challenge at all. Although rare, it is an amazing feeling when your students are so engaged in conversation you actually have to signal the end of class and you leave thinking, ‘wow, I am great at engaging my students.’ You pat yourself on the back and feel elated with your skills as a teacher. More often, however, you experience the ever dreaded silent stares. It is like they have been practicing the oh so stoic pose of a deer in headlights. Unfortunately, those days of pulling teeth for conversation can throw even the most experienced instructors for a loop and greatly affect confidence. Fortunately, our amazing teacher Carrie Anne (brown nosing intended) has provided us with two textbooks that have provided excellent information on engaging students in classroom discussion.
Both authors talked about using debates as a way to foster classroom discussion. I love debates and find them to be useful in creating discussion (especially if the class has time in advance to prepare). Davis had an interesting twist to his debate format; his students had to form an opinion for both sides of the argument ready for class. Not only did this activity help engage discussion, it taught students to “understand the complexities of a controversy, rather than simply reinforce their initial views” (Davis p. 100). Lang provided a cool idea of the “forced debate” in which he asked students to choose one side of two opposing positions. In class the students had to physically move to one side of the room according to their viewpoint (middle of the classroom if undecided). Lang explained, “I usually ask a handful of students on one side to respond to that question; by the time they are finished, the students on the other side are frantic to refute” and then “whenever someone moves to a new side or away from the middle, you can pause and ask them why; it also helps the students see that others are changing their minds as a result of the discussion” (Lang p. 95).
A great tip that Davis provided was to limit your own comments to encourage student discussion (Davis p. 107). As I read this I thought, ‘whoa, that is what Carrie Anne does.’ Yes, she validates our conversation, nods, and will make a small comment here ant there, but she is awesome at just sitting back and letting us “respond to one another” (Davis p. 107). (brown nosing not intended) Lang also commented on this point when he said “you are not the teapot… and they are not the teacup. … you serve as a guide along the way—but they work with their peers to construct their new understanding of the subject” (Lang p. 88).
I love the post-it note ideas. Both authors mentioned this strategy but I liked how Lang provided us with a couple different ways we can make this strategy work to our advantage. Not only could we use it as a “token of encouragement” (Davis p. 108), we can use it as a way to limit the “over contributors” in the class by explaining that the post-its represent one point of extra credit but you can only get two (Lang p. 100).
Overall, I think both authors presented excellent way to encourage classroom discussion. I’m excited to try some of the new tips and ideas!
Engaging students in discussion is an interesting challenge. I use the work interesting because sometimes it isn’t a challenge at all. Although rare, it is an amazing feeling when your students are so engaged in conversation you actually have to signal the end of class and you leave thinking, ‘wow, I am great at engaging my students.’ You pat yourself on the back and feel elated with your skills as a teacher. More often, however, you experience the ever dreaded silent stares. It is like they have been practicing the oh so stoic pose of a deer in headlights. Unfortunately, those days of pulling teeth for conversation can throw even the most experienced instructors for a loop and greatly affect confidence. Fortunately, our amazing teacher Carrie Anne (brown nosing intended) has provided us with two textbooks that have provided excellent information on engaging students in classroom discussion.
Both authors talked about using debates as a way to foster classroom discussion. I love debates and find them to be useful in creating discussion (especially if the class has time in advance to prepare). Davis had an interesting twist to his debate format; his students had to form an opinion for both sides of the argument ready for class. Not only did this activity help engage discussion, it taught students to “understand the complexities of a controversy, rather than simply reinforce their initial views” (Davis p. 100). Lang provided a cool idea of the “forced debate” in which he asked students to choose one side of two opposing positions. In class the students had to physically move to one side of the room according to their viewpoint (middle of the classroom if undecided). Lang explained, “I usually ask a handful of students on one side to respond to that question; by the time they are finished, the students on the other side are frantic to refute” and then “whenever someone moves to a new side or away from the middle, you can pause and ask them why; it also helps the students see that others are changing their minds as a result of the discussion” (Lang p. 95).
A great tip that Davis provided was to limit your own comments to encourage student discussion (Davis p. 107). As I read this I thought, ‘whoa, that is what Carrie Anne does.’ Yes, she validates our conversation, nods, and will make a small comment here ant there, but she is awesome at just sitting back and letting us “respond to one another” (Davis p. 107). (brown nosing not intended) Lang also commented on this point when he said “you are not the teapot… and they are not the teacup. … you serve as a guide along the way—but they work with their peers to construct their new understanding of the subject” (Lang p. 88).
I love the post-it note ideas. Both authors mentioned this strategy but I liked how Lang provided us with a couple different ways we can make this strategy work to our advantage. Not only could we use it as a “token of encouragement” (Davis p. 108), we can use it as a way to limit the “over contributors” in the class by explaining that the post-its represent one point of extra credit but you can only get two (Lang p. 100).
Overall, I think both authors presented excellent way to encourage classroom discussion. I’m excited to try some of the new tips and ideas!
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