After reading Almasi’s article, A New View of Discussion, it was clear that when it comes to my second grade classroom, there is a lot of recitation that goes on. When it comes time to discuss a story, there is a lot of teacher-student interaction, as opposed to student-student interaction. Mrs. Kreft asks questions that prompt students to recall what they already know from reading the story. Almasi referred to this type of discussion as the IRE (Initiate-Respond-Evaluate) participatory structure. The goal of discussion in Mrs. Kreft’s classroom is for students to better comprehend the story and the main components of literature (setting, characters, plot, theme, etc.). Scaffolding is often used by the teacher in the lower reading groups to guide student reading. However, there is not a lot of student involvement that forces the children to really engage in reflective thinking. Since the discussion in the classroom serves as an assessment for Mrs. Kreft, the students’ responses are usually shaped around what they believe the teacher would find to be a satisfactory answer.
I think that at the young age my second graders are at, when they come up with an answer that they are satisfied with, they stick to it. Their interpretation of a story does not transform and is not shaped by their peers’ thoughts and ideas. Although the students are young, I think it is possible for the teacher to encourage students to challenge each other’s ideas without putting anyone down. In a good discussion, the teacher should remain neutral and silent, unless they are guiding the students’ discussion in a particular direction to promote richer understanding. As Langer mentions in the article, Understanding Literature, teachers should ask open-ended questions and questions that help students make connections between the reading and personal experience. Although this occurs occasionally in my classroom, the teacher will often cut students off when they begin to go off on tangents about personal stories.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Discussion in the Classroom
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3 comments:
I also have had the same observations as you in my classroom placement. I think it is espicially important for us to not get in the habit of asking questions that have only one anticipated answer, but instead, focus more on using students critical thinking skills and opening up the class to more student-student interactions. Even if the CT does not do this, we should, and it is a good expierence for us to be following the advice we have been getting through articles such as Langer, etc.
Nicole,
I think it may be hard to have a class discussion in a second grade classroom in the sense that the students may become stuck on only what they have to say like you said. You CT may do IRE because she does not feel comfortable doing a class discussion. As your students grow and as the year goes on you may be able to have some sort of class discussion. It is good that your CT is making sure that all of the students understand the story and other ideas. I think you are doing a great job in observing your class and CT. I think you may want to try to incorporate some of the things from the articles we read when you are working with a small group of students and if your CT sees this she may want to incorporate it into the classroom herself.
Like Ashleigh, I think that it might be hard to hold an IRE discussion in a second grade classroom. In fact, I was surprised that discussion was actually happening in the classroom, but then again, it does not shock me that students at this age are not influenced by their peers' responses. I can picture second graders responding in a way in which they felt their teacher wants to hear. From the sound of it, these students just need a little encouragement to speak freely in the class, and listen to their classmates.
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