Up For Discussion

I feel that group/whole class discussion is becoming more and more prevalent in schools today. When I was in middle and high school, we were rarely engaged in whole classroom discussion, especially where the students would lead the discussion. It is important that we, as teachers, remember that there is a social context to learning. Discussion needs to be a fairly significant part of a student’s education, yet the discussion needs to go beyond “common recitative answering of closed questions with their anticipated correct answers” (M&M 25). Students need to be challenged when talking in class; they need to feel that they have a “stake” in the conversation. Children will then be prone to take class more seriously and take ownership of their thoughts and of their learning. Students should lead the discussion a fair amount of the class discussion time, yet they need some ground rules to make sure their learning is meaningful.

Also, kids should respond to each other; when a student asks a question, another student should answer back to him/her, not back to/through the teacher. I thought it was a good idea for students to write down questions they have and then they could trade with another student and they could respond to each other. Another idea is to have students write down their questions/topics for discussion and give them to the teacher. The teacher can then bring up the questions without students knowing who is asking a particular question. The anonymity of this discussion may make shy or quiet children more likely to participate since there would not be that fear of ridicule when stating what they want to discuss.

Ridicule, humiliation, or punishment for an incorrect answer can keep many kids from wanting to speak up in class discussion. It is important that students feel that they are in an amicable, encouraging environment where they can speak freely and debate respectfully. Nancy Rost Goulden says that teachers should expect, and teach their students to expect, that every student will speak every day. I see where that could lead to a fully participatory classroom, but I also think that additional written assignments should occasionally be made available to those students who have an extremely high anxiety for speaking in class. That way a teacher can see that the timid student was actively listening in class and their written assignment is responding to something they heard in class discussion that day. I suppose I just have a soft spot for those extremely nervous children, because I was that child in many of my classes growing up. I do, however, feel it is important that all students speak up in classroom discussions, so it does not become a place where two or three children show off their “verbal acrobatics.”