Blending Methods Part 3: Leading Classroom Discussion

Classroom discussion was the focus of the third and final workshop I redesigned for this course. Student voice is at the heart of almost every ELA course, as central to the process of meaning-making within social contexts and through social connections. Typically, methods' assignments address the role of discussion from the perspective of organization (content and structure) and ownership. Research makes it very clear that most classroom interactions follow the I.R.E. model that limits authentic student contributions through the dominance of the teacher's voice and perspectives. Instead, we encourage teachers to embrace more dialogic models of classroom discourse and create opportunities for student-initiated talk. Unfortunately, this approach to teaching discussion through these types of readings and conversations alone often leads to an overly idealized vision of what classroom practice will look like. 

This time around I utilized my traditional readings and activities for introducing discussion in the form of an online module to 'flip' my instruction. Then, I used our designated class hours for students to plan, implement, and analyze a discussion segment for their practicum placement. I encouraged students to design the discussion in response to literature or informational text given their context. They worked to pre-plan questions using a provided template but also to consider opportunities for students to take control of the conversation. Following their discussion, students reviewed a recording of their discussion and completed an analysis guide that emphasized key features highlighted during the module.

The outcome: pretty much everyone thought they failed! Some students even asked if they could redo the activity because the discussions went so poorly.

Of course, this is the reality of testing out methods. Leading discussions is one of the most challenging practices to master and teachers felt confounded by confronting the nuances:

• Students controlled the discussion, but then it didn't really go anywhere.
• I controlled the discussion, but then students didn't have an opportunity to build off of each other's ideas.
• I was so tied to my planning sheet that I missed opportunities to uptake student ideas, and there was little cohesion between our topics.
• Students had nothing to say. Crickets!
• I had students write notes ahead of time to generate ideas, but then they just read their notes and failed to listen to each other.
• I have no idea what my students 'know' or 'understand' as a result of this discussion.

As I observed student videos and read through their reflections, these same questions emerged again and again. These were authentic concerns and frustrations that rarely came up before we moved our practice into the classroom space. I decided to take this workshop one step further as the topic of an interactive webinar--coming next!