Thoughts on discussions

A few things that I noticed during the class discussions:

~ There was a lot of "half-thoughts". A student would say something and then trail off a bit at times. Perhaps through their actions they conveyed their point, or were only wanting the teacher to realize what their point was, and once it was established that they had gotten their point across, they'd stop talking.

~It happened on a couple occasions, but I enjoyed when teachers would add in something that had nothing to do with the discussion, such as "did everyone sign the reading list. I wonder if there was a point to throwing in this bit of class business in the middle of the discussion. Maybe to get the attention of people drifting off or maybe to make sure those that are really engaged don't forget to do something simple and not get credit (that has happened to me).

~I think you could really tell when a teacher had a goal and when they didn't. Teachers could really steer the conversation to where they wanted it to go, but at other times teachers were just content to let the class figure things out. Something that I've started to notice my professors saying is "I'm not looking for one answer", to help keep the conversation going and encourage more participation.

~I felt that the high school transcripts displayed a lot more familiarity with one another than the few college transcripts we had. Students and teachers knew each other better in the HS setting and it showed. I thought the conversations flowed better there than they did at the college level.

What I want from discussions:

I want discussions in my classroom to be a way for students to learn. There are days that I like to just sit back and listen to what fellow students are saying so that I can get a handle on their thoughts. It can help me analyze a text better, for example. So I want my students to feel that they can learn in these discussions. I want to explore the issues in literature that we've read and help students make sense of it.

Now, how does one make sure that discussion is worthwhile? I think developing that report, getting students comfortable with talking in class is essential. It takes time, I would not expect great discussions right off the bat, but I think that as students get more comfortable in the class than they'll be more likely to take part. From that discussion would come the generation of ideas, and that becomes part of the learning process. I think it would be important to guide conversation when necessary, but other times let things ride. Knowing when to do which is probably a skill honed over the course of several school years, but I think its an important one to develop so that students get the most education out of class discussions.