Adam - Reading Notes #3

TT

“To spark participation… call on students who express strong opinions. To calm a discussion… avoid calling on opinionated students.” (102) All students are not created equal, but manipulating their differences to facilitate discussion sounds a bit dangerous. I think such an approach could easily be mistaken for favoritism. It belies the kind of professional relationship that should exist between teacher and student.

“Assign students to conduct the summary.” (102) Good idea.

“Give quiet students special encouragement.” (109) Here is another instance of the book repeatedly advising teachers to focus on the outliers in their classes: participation, attendance, grades, ability, everywhere we pay special attention to the outliers. Is the purpose of education to pull everyone towards the middle? To make everyone average? Once everyone is average, no special attention is warranted, making teachers’ jobs easier.

“Do not be afraid of silence.” (122) Yes! It’s easier said than done; but, “Pausing lets students know that replies do not have to be formulated quickly.”

“Preempt the serial answerer/questioner.” (130) This section’s for Margo. In Lang’s opinion (100) “This is the most difficult problem you will encounter in discussion classes.”

OC

Forced Debate (95) sounds like a provocative idea. I need to watch for an opportunity to utilize it. Having students physically switch sides during the debate could be chaotic, and of course not all classrooms have extra seats to allow movement.

“Several weeks of listening to lectures will condition students into a passivity that will be harder and harder to break as the semester continues.” (96) I totally agree at the class level, but I think this is less true at the individual level. Shy students will still find moments to contribute if the class in general is lively and open. I don’t believe equality should be a goal of student participation: passive students may be learning as much or more by listening.

“If you’ve managed to engage twenty American teenagers in intellectual conversation, you’re doing at least half of your job as a college instructor.” (99) I’m not sure why American teenagers are singled out, but to the rest of it: absolutely. One of the best methods of getting students to pay attention in class is to let discussions go off on tangents for a while… then on the next quiz or test ask about that tangential topic, especially if it wasn’t covered elsewhere. This reinforces the importance of attendance and attentiveness, while also validating students’ input (just because it isn’t in the book, doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable enough to be tested on).