Mike's Reading Notes #3

Overall, I think the readings for this week were pretty helpful for leading and planning discussions. I always feel that discussion portions of class always seem to be the most difficult because of the challenges Lang talks about in the beginning of the chapter. Mostly that college aged kids likely (though not always) rolled out of bed 10 minutes before class, and are showing up on time for the sake of not being late, but aren’t quite prepared to learn. I think this is where Lang makes a great suggestion to hae students respond in writing for 10 minutes prior to the lecture beginning. Do you have students keep their responses to use in discussion? Or is this something you collect and grade? Also along those lines, Lang mentions that students will seek clarification with the pre-writing. Is there anyone who has given this mini-assignment and found that to be true?

Once the discussion begins, Davis immediately mentions that we as teachers should clarify our expectations for discussion at the beginning of the term. I feel this is great, because far too many times I receive a syllabus at the beginning of class that says there will be discussion and graded participation, but nowhere to be found is the expectations. Is this a good thing to put in the syllabus? Or should it just be discussed as a class?

Taking into account the questions Davis lists on page 121 in “Levels and Types of Questions”, what are some favorite questions the class likes to uses to engage students and drive discussion. I think that if we are going to grade discussion, it helps to give the students a few ideas for discussion. But when you are grading discussion, how do you grade that fairly? Even though Davis gives a few examples of grading, I feel that it is a very subjective and probably difficult to keep fair. Considering there are students who are positively terrified of talking in public, would this also be a good opportunity to require discussion outside of class in an online message board so those more reserved students can give input, but not feel pressured in class?

I also wanted to know if there were more strategies on presenting debate in class. I think having debate on a topic can be a good thing, especially when it involves issues that have two distinct sides, because it helps students understand the issue in a practical sense. But what are the most effective ways to do this while also maintaining control of the class during debate?