Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Readings for 23 January
After reading the Almasi article A New View of Discussion, I was intrigued by the manner in which discussions were looked at by the author. Growing up, I thought was used to what the author called the I-R-E model, that is, there is a question and then there is a right answer to that question. However further examining my past in language arts and reading this article, I realize that there is a difference between this, which is called a recitation, and an actual discussion, as the author explains. From experience, and from the article, it is obvious that the discussion is more effective in engaging students in the classroom than recitations do. With the discussion, as opposed to the recitation, all students can become involved in the class discussion, and along with the teacher, everybody takes on roles. These roles are important to the success of a good classroom discussion. For me, the roles the students take on are the most important. When the student acts as the inquisitor, it helps the teacher gain an understanding of what the students got out of the reading, and it also will help other students construct their own meanings out of this. When students act as the facilitator of interaction, students encourage other students to speak, which helps the students feel more comfortable, and allows for a wider range of students to participate in the discussion. When students act as the facilitator of interpretation, students get a chance to connect personal experiences to the context of the discussion, which will help them feel more comfortable, and again allow for more students to participate. When students act as the respondent, they are answering each others' questions, as opposed to answering the teacher's questions as they would in a recitation. Finally, students acting as an evaluator allows for students to challenge the validity of their peers' responses. This is in contrast to a recitation where students' responses are evaluated by the teacher. I hope I will be able to institute these roles in my classroom, which will allow for more of my students to enjoy language arts.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I also like the idea of giving students roles. I think when students know they have responsibilities that others are depending on them for, they are much more engaged in the lesson. I really would like to see this in an actual classroom.
Kevin,
I agree with you that discussion is more valuable in the classroom than recitation. In discussion you are right that that students take on roles and when they do it is an opportunity for the teacher to hear everyone's ideas and for students to learn from each other. It is important to have a classroom community in which everyone feels comfortable. It is good that you see all the different roles that students can take on in in a discussion and it will help you incorporate it into your own classroom.
Assigning student roles is a great way to make the students feel like they have a purpose in the discussion. I think that giving the role of the faciliator to a student who speaks up a lot in class is a great way of making him responsible to get the shyer students involved in the conversation.
Post a Comment