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I've been trying to have most of my class periods work in a discussion style format but I'll admit to having some difficulties. I have a few incredibly active participants who can't seem to handle the silence that follows my questions so they very quickly volunteer to contribute—don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I am getting frustrated. Last week, when Anne was observing my class, I required everyone to speak by getting them in a circle and having them share the “new idea” I had asked them to generate for homework. We then opened it up to a more general discussion on what they had posted on blackboard as well, and more people seemed willing to contribute. A problem however, and this was something Anne and I discussed at length afterwards, is my students’ tendency to “go global” rather than narrow their focus and connect with the readings. I attempted to narrow the conversation the following class period—and it worked to some extent but they all looked like deer in headlights when I explained the benefits of a narrower focus. I attempted to get them going by asking them to share some of the ideas they were formulating for paper 1, and every single person who would contribute something followed it with “…is that okay?” All in all the class session I think assuaged some of their concerns and fears about writing their drafts this weekend—and next week is focused on peer review and one-on-one meetings with me so I think there will be many more opportunities to talk about narrowing focus. I am going to formulate a “list of things to look at” for the peer review day on Monday so that my students can look at their partner’s focus and hopefully, by critiquing their partner, will have some reflection of their own. When they reflect in writing, such as on blackboard, they are actually pretty good when it comes to depth of thought or connecting with the readings, so I’m also wondering if somehow being on-the-spot in class, or speaking aloud is the issue?
I know this is a bit of a rambling comment but I’d love to hear other’s thoughts and suggestions!

I really dig class discussions. For the most part, my 8AM class is shockingly responsive and talkative. My experience with such early classes isn't necessarily a positive one as students are usually so, so, so tired from the night before. That being said, I think there are a couple of effective strategies I've tried to get students prepared for class discussions.

1. I find it really useful to provide students with a prompt the class before that they need to answer in some form on the discussion board forum. I usually have something like "Record 5 statements that you either didn't understand, didn't agree with, agreed with, or simply found interesting. Record the statement and your opinion about the statement on the discussion board forum entitled "Discussion for Sept. X" I require that the responses be posted the night before class so I have time to copy and paste quotes or ideas that came up multiple times onto a piece of paper. From there, I run off the paper and use those student generated prompts as the jumping off point for class discussion the next day.

2. I've used the Like/Dislike/Questions format (I know, we discourage binary thinking and quick judgements, but I preface the activity by recognizing as much) with boarded activities so students have the opportunity to board the information (and hence, become responsible for it). I'll usually give them 10 minutes or so to skim the text to find what they want to discuss. Next, I have them discuss that small bit of information with their partner. Next, I have the class as a whole discuss the information by asking partners to describe what their partners boarded. I hope this gets them thinking about the subjects/difficulties in ways beyond their own perception.

3. Sometimes I have students create an "entry slip" that I place into a hat. This slip must contain one question they had about the reading. Next, we go around, everyone draws out a strip, and we take 30 minutes or so to go over some of the questions. It's a bit cheesy, but they seem to enjoy it.

I've learned again this semester that my biggest challenge is keeping overeager students in check. This is difficult because you want to encourage them to participate because they are so committed to the discussion; however, they tend to silence those other, more timid voices. I'm working on some strategies to address this that includes posture and the direction I face/place attention. I am also finding it difficult to let students carry the conversation instead of injecting myself as mediator, but my grip on the authority is slowly lessening and I think I'll be an old hat at being simply a "facilitator" soon.

The biggest challenge for my students so far has been just understanding the readings, so it's only been in the last class period or so we've started having time for what I would call a discussion. Because of that, I honestly haven't done much in the way of preparation other than close reading the text myself, so I'd be prepared to answer any questions they had. I normally start by asking for anything they'd like to talk about. If a student has a question about meaning, or an author's focus, I open it up to the rest of the class, and ask if any of them noticed that, or had a problem with it, or have any thoughts about it. Almost always, luckily, another student volunteers to respond to them, which is more interesting for them, I'm sure, than listening to me talking all the time.
I feel really good about our discussion of "A Boy's Life" because, even though they had a lot of issues with the structure of the essay, they had an actual debate amongst themselves about the extent to which the author was blaming society and Matthew Shepard's murderers. Most of them were using textual support without me even having to ask, which I hope bodes well for their papers. At this point, it might start to be useful to use some sort of prompt – Justin, I liked your five statements idea. That’s something I’d like to implement now that we’re spending less time summarizing the author’s main points.
Along with comprehension problems, I have a lot of students who are really stuck on the idea of theses – one girl asked me for the main point of “A Boy’s Life,” and when I listed off five, she asked again, “But what’s the main point?” Because of that, one thing I hope the discussions are beginning to support is the idea of having many claims as opposed to one thesis, and maybe they’ll make the idea of an evolving thesis easier to understand once we get there.

I've had two very different experiences with discussion so far. One of my classes is very energetic and they come into class with a lot of ideas and opinions they want to discuss in regard to the reading. Everyone in the class talks (though some more than others), and they seem genuinely engaged in the readings. My other class is quieter, and they are more reluctant to talk to each other. Even when they're in groups for a heuristic, I have a hard time getting them to share their ideas with their partners instead of just completing the assignment sheet themselves. Any ideas on how to get them to open up? One thing I've learned about myself is that I'm much more nervous when I'm teaching the quiet class, so I think I tend to go fast and sometimes I don't take enough time between my questions for them to answer. (It feels like ages, but, as I learned on Friday, it is only 2 seconds.) Also, they occasionally ask me a question I don't really feel prepared to answer, so I'm trying to remember I can allow myself a little extra time to answer their questions as well.

I'm not sure I have much to add to the tenor of how class discussions go. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. Some kids eager, others quiet. One thing I'm trying to do, which they are getting really good at, is talking in terms of claims. They've been really good at sticking to the readings, trying to find the claims, find the evidence which supports it. I'm not sure they're crazy about the conversation working this way, but they're quite good at doing it.

I think I got lucky with my class. It's full of really smart, actively participating students, whom I never really have to prod that much to start discussion. Some days my discussion-starting batting average is really good, and other days it's okay. I'm usually able to adjust and ask a more manageable follow up question. Using the homework as a jumping off point is key. It's thinking they've already been doing on their own. One thing I'm really trying to get my students to do more of is respond to one another, because that enables them to take their pre-formed ideas and challenge each other. I think that's a function of how comfortable they are in the classroom and how much they see themselves as college writers as opposed to high school kids trying to impress me with pre-packaged answers. I started off the discussion of Diana George's essay by asking a rather harmless lead-in about whether or not anyone had volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, as a way to break the ice. Then I admitted to having volunteered for H for H in high school. One thing I've been trying to do is show them that the difference between them and "professional" writers like Diana George (and writing teachers like me) is not as big as they think. By reading selected passages and asking them what techniques George is using, I'm able to give them concrete examples of where George is using summary, analysis, research, etc. I constantly consult the text and force students to back up their in-class statements with quotes from the text. Besides getting them comfortable with interpolating sources, I think it's also important to hear the sound of well-written sentences and clearly stated ideas. One problem I have is losing the thread of class discussions myself because I'm too concerned with managing time, which has been my biggest problem. My classes always run long. I'm really interested to see what kinds of claims they came up with tomorrow.

My class this semester is really enthusiastic about contributing to class discussions so I haven't yet had to work especially hard to get them to speak. I do, however, usually give them a form to help structure their discussion. For example, for every reading I have the students write a 2 sentence summary of the text. I then ask a few students to share and as they do so and their classmates respond, we begin to discuss more and more of the text and any issues they had with the reading naturally arise. Also, we've been analyzing several images together as a class (since our inquiry is visual rhetoric) and when they do this I ask them to do so using the strategies for analyzing visual images in Critical Encounters
(p. 15). Most of the class contributes freely to the discussion, but I also try to keep track of who hasn't spoken and call on those individuals if/when discussion lags.

It's hard to say how my class discussions have been going, because I've only really had about two. The first (with Sontag) went very well, but I really fell flat with the framing text. Like Mikael, I always try to open discussion with their homework and to sort of prod them in the right direction from there. I've also had them do group work twice. It worked alright the first time, but last week I had several students start to slack when they were in their groups. Unfortunately, it seems like the same students are speaking consistently in class, so I'm trying to think of ways to encourage the more quiet students to speak. Also, I find that showing a few images on the board at the beginning of class works very well. Its a good jumping off point for them to relate the image back to their home work and the work we are doing in class.

I'm a bit late in my response, but I'd still like to participate in this brief discussion. Class discussions with this group of students is thus far one of my favorite parts of class. Like some have already mentioned, I too am a fan of spending some time getting students to think before conversing as a class (whether from HW or based on in class stuff like freewriting). So far, students have been very forthcoming with responses and reflections, so much that my biggest complaint would be that it seems we don't have enough time to talk. That observation, however, leads me to wonder about ways of using class discussion time more efficiently...? And I'm especially concerned with ways to model effective ways for students to avoid bias and dependence on personal opinions in their responses. I want them to feel comfortable talking in class (without me drawing too much attention to how they frame their responses); however, many of my students speak in generalities and will jump to opposing positions. Things are just moving so fast! I need to remember that what we don't cover now, we can cover later :).

Anne is posting this for Lucius:

I definitely don't have a problem with overeager students talking too much. Like Alice, I had many students in both my sections who had trouble understanding one of the readings (the Diana George essay), and so I spent part of class helping them "map" the essay on the board, so that everybody could have a basic grasp of the main ideas. Like others here, I usually start discussion using one of the heuristics, or getting them to talk about the previous night's homework.

I also brought in a copy of the Migrant Mother photo and asked them questions about it w/r/t George's essay. That portion of discussion went pretty well and I think having them look at and comment on an image helped engage them a little more.

I love Lucius' strategy of bringing in the Migrant Mother photo w/r/t Diana George. And for those of us teaching Maggie Anderson this week, I have the Walker Evans photo she references in the poem. Just ask. But back to Lucius...I think in general it's a terrific strategy to bring other texts into play with the shared readings, even if it's simply letting students actually see an image that is referenced in the text. If I have time in my class today, I want to screen about ten minutes of Agnes Varda's film "The Gleaners and I"—--a scene near the end where she interviews and follows a young man living in a homeless shelter on the outskirts of a city in France. The man has an advanced degree in Biology; he's articulate and thoughtful; he gleans in the public markets, making careful choices about the food he scavenges and its nutritional components; AND he gives French lessons (for free)to the immigrant men and women who share the shelter with him. I want students to put that representation of poverty up against the representations Diana George problematizes.

The more we can do to help students "notice," to pay attention to the details (in a shared reading or an image or a film, etc), to make their own references more precise and concrete, as opposed to general and/or impressionistic, the better their thinking and writing will be.

Posting for TJ West:


I have found all of my class sessions so far to have been very engaging, with almost every student getting involved with class discussion. Oftentimes, I find myself acting as more of a moderator rather than an initiator; the students seem quite willing to engage in discussions with one another, which for me has been quite surprising and inspiring. I do have to say, however, that a lot of them tend to throw around words like “human nature” that I find problematic, so I am seeking ways to challenge them to move beyond generalizations when they make claims. To motivate class discussion, I generally begin by having the class free-write or work in groups, then ask them to bring their observations to the rest of the class. This not only gives them an opportunity to start thinking, but also gives them a chance to share what they’ve discovered with their classmates. One thing that I have found to be particularly useful is to continually using what I refer to as “the Socratic method” of teaching. Whenever a student makes a claim or brings up a discussion point, I return by asking them a question elaborating upon that point. I have found that this not only continues to continually stimulate discussion, but also forces students to re-evaluate their own claims and to find evidence to support their ideas.
Specifically, one of my recent classes worked very well, with students responding to questions they had posted on Blackboard (which is another means I have of getting them interested/prepared for class discussion.) My preparation for class usually consists of writing out a general list of what topics I want to discuss that day, as well as how much time I have allotted for that. My two greatest challenges thus far have consisted mainly of time management (not getting to discuss everything I want to discuss,) as well as not adequately explaining how what we’re doing applies to the paper they are eventually going to write. I believe that more effective time management (making sure I pay closer attention to how discussion is going,) better planning (a more realistic view of what I can and can’t accomplish in a day,) and a clearer explanation to my students of why what they’re doing will help them write a better paper.

I'm not in the undergrad classroom at the moment, but I can draw on some work I did in the spring with my WRT 205 class that might be helpful. Also, I want to preface this by saying I think teachers have to do a lot of prep work for discussion, but I think students should doing just as much, if not more prep work. That's the philosophy behind the description that follows

During the first several classes, which attempted to add vocabulary and increased complexity to students’ ways of thinking and talking about our topic of inquiry, I sought to demonstrate for students how they might make connections among concepts they were encountering and systemize them. For example, students produced taxonomies based on categories derived from what served as a kind of framing text, Christian Smith's "Correcting a Curious Neglect, Or Bringing Religion Back In." At our second class, students were already writing to make sense of course readings and the problems (perhaps paradigmatic problems) they might present for students. Given the likelihood of students being unfamiliar with many of the groups and concepts named in Smith’s article, I asked them to choose one organization they came across in the reading to do some brief internet research about for homework--a practice I got last year from the 670 Team that we all know as “quick ’n’-dirty research” or “research as invention.” After doing that research, they wrote a page about how they understood that organization as possibly drawing on one of the “religious assets for activism” that Smith names and explicates: powerful imagery, authorization from the divine, moral imperatives, etc. These tasks were part of the first homework assignment along with identifying binaries in YouTube videos documenting one campaign by Soulforce. Soulforce is a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Christian organization that conducts "Equality Rides" (in the tradition of the civil right era "freedom rides") that entail civil disobedience at Christian colleges and universities that expel LGBT students who come out.

In the second class, students gathered in small groups where they 1) identified features from the videos that illustrated some of Smith’s assets and 2) briefed each other about what they learned and wrote about the organization they chose. On the blackboard, I created a chart with columns labeled by the different “assets” and rows labeled “Soulforce” and “Organizations from Smith.” Once groups completed their discussions, they selected representatives to record on the board, in the appropriate intersections, notes from their conversations. Interestingly, different groups and individual students placed the same aspects of Soulforce and the same organization from Smith under different assets. Interrogating this variance provided an opening class discussion that moved students toward making claims, evaluating claims, and evaluating the evidence being used to make claims.

I'm always astonished by how the physical space of a classroom impacts the shape of the discussions that take place in it. Right now I'm teaching in two different classrooms--one with fixed tables (so students are all looking straight ahead at me) and one where we can circle up. While nearly everyone's making rich contributions in both classes, I find that many students in the first classroom are still directing their comments to me rather than the class as a whole, while students in the other group respond to one another more freely. After addressing it directly with the first class there's been some improvement, but there's still a number of students looking at me expectantly after they add their two cents (as if waiting for me to affirm or evaluate their response). I'm prompting students to make connections or attend to their peers' ideas more regularly.

One other thing to consider: I think sometimes when we sense students aren't understanding a text, our default impulse is to ask big, broad questions that are often difficult for students to answer rather than focusing on a manageable, specific passage for students to explore or complicate together. While I think many of the strategies you all have mentioned (Collette's practice of asking for a brief summary and Justin's great ideas for opening things up) are wonderful--especially when you have a group of strong readers and willing participants--I often find that directing confused students to a key moment in the text gives them a more grounded place to start understanding the piece as a whole. We can practice our close and critical reading strategies together and start looking at the writerly moves in the piece (much in the way that Mikael described above).