Miwa's reading Notes #3

I am interested in two topics to discuss: how to change predictable process of discussion and effectively take advantage of products of discussion.

Breaking through Predictable Process of Discussion

I am suffering from monotonous patterns of my discussion questions. I have found that most of my questions consist of only few of levels and types of questions (Davis, p. 119). Three patterns include “what is X?” to define a term, “what does X mean?” to explain the concept, and “please give me some examples” to illustrate. It is very obvious that the questions can be just pulled from reading and it seems very monotonous process: boring for those who have done reading well and discourage those who have not done to join the discussion.

Also, I have some hesitation to handle students who actively participate in or are reluctant to participate in discussion. It may be a common challenge for many instructors and not only for myself, but

I believe I know some good ways to solve the problem, including the ones that I learned in reading (Lang, p. 123), but still applying knowledge to practice is a major challenge for me in terms of teaching.

My too much focus on basics also derives from my listening ability to students’ talk, which interrupts my good listening to students (Davis, p. 119) in discussion. It doesn’t necessary mean my English proficiency but their casual, fast speaking including many requires me to spare my extra attention to listening. I hesitate to ask them to repeat, speak slowly, or restate it as I am afraid it may affect my credibility as an instructor of an international student. The strategy to prompt students to clarify their questions looks very useful for me (Davis, p. 129 Lang.)

The Effective Use of Discussion Products

The issue of monotonous design of discussion questions also leads to my monotonous responses to students’ answers to them. I tend to handle students’ answers in very fixed ways: simply restate or summarize them. I am trying to come up with something else that can further motivate their participation in discussion and reinforce their understanding by giving appropriate examples, demonstrate good application, etc., though it is still very hard to do something impromptu Extemporaneousness is a major challenge for me to overcome, as I am feeling large pressure to fully practice basics at least and have no room to do something unplanned. (Davis, p. x)

In addition, the use of products of group/pair discussion is also fixed. Ask students to discuss question in groups or pairs, students present their answers, and I restate or summarize them. It is just a different size of discussion groups: class, group, or pair. I am trying to vary the pattern of discussion to attract their interest and attention, though it doesn’t look effective as I expect.