Hailey's Reading Notes #3

This week I really felt the readings were beneficial. It is a constant struggle with me on how to get students involved in the discussion. In fact, I had that frustration today as I was standing in front of my COMM 110 class lecturing. I had 22 sets of eyes (44 if you count both sections) starring at me, and when I would ask a question, the same student felt obligated to answer and everyone else just say in silence.

Many of the suggestions to get students involved in discussions were not completely new to me. For example, both Lang and Davis discussed waiting 10-15 seconds after asking a question for students to respond. (Davis, pg. 122) (Lang, pg. 101). I do this in COMM 110, though sometimes it does feel like the longest wait ever. However, the student that answers is usually the one that feels awkward about the silence and caves. While the Lang talked about how to handle those students that always want to jump in and answer right away (Lang, pg 109), neither author discusses how to handle the students that feel sorry for you. Lang does reference Davis actually by saying to not, “… always jump in relief at that lone hand.” (Lang, pg. 101) However, I have waited and waited and waited, and I still feel like students just do not answer. I hate having to pull the “time for a quiz” card.

The other question I have about discussions is if they are always relevant for every class and/or topic in a given course? For example, in COMM 110, it is difficult for me to think of how I would create a formal discussion. While I loved Lang’s example of a forced debate (Lang, pg. 95), would it be relevant for a public speaking course? I feel like some courses seem to have more topics that are discussion oriented than others. Is that the case or can every course have discussion worthy opportunities?

I think the most disturbing thing I read this week was one suggestion Davis has for discouraging the “serial answerer/questioner”. One suggestion she gives is to, “Move around the room and stand with your back to the serial answerer when you ask a question.” (Lang, pg. 131)

I read that and said out loud (literally) “Are you serious?!”

Yes, she did give plenty of other suggestions, but that seemed absolutely horrible to me. Do some instructors really do that?