Discussion Leadership

Here is a copy of the handout I gave for leading class discussions, as mentioned in this post.

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Some ideas for leading class discussions:
1 . Come up with a reading quiz. You can ask about key arguments, or vocabulary.
2. Break the class into groups, and have them come up with “posters” that convey parts of
the reading.
3. Give each group discussion questions to consider.
4. Assign an in­-class writing that will then be shared and given comments/feedback.
5. Assign different groups to take on different points of view about the topic. Let them
collaborate, and then debate or simply present their arguments.
6. Make a questionnaire that students have to fill out, then share for commentary.
7. Make a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation on the article. You will need your laptop and
connective hardware (Dongle) to use the screen in the classroom.
8. Set up a debate. Assign students a side, give them a little time to come up with some
ideas, and then let it happen.
 
Resources that might help:
1 . Feel free to use the questions/prompts in the book… Questions for Critical Thinking (at
the beginning), and Questions for Connecting/Assignments for Writing (at the end of
each article) are particularly helpful.
2. Spend some time checking out “Exploring Context” at the end of the article to see if there
are other things you want to bring in.
3. Do a Google search for articles related to the reading, and use them as further jumping
off points for discussion.
 
Points to consider:
1 . Try to ask open-­ended questions to gather more feedback.
2. Maybe offer prizes to people that answer questions (candy works well, or team/individual
points).
3. Keep track of who is responding, and who isn’t. Encourage people sitting there silently to
give an answer to something

Essay Two... Done!

My students have finished essay #2, the synthesis/idea exploration essay. It has been turned in and graded. I am pleased overall, as most of the grades were in the upper 80s, with a few in the low 90s, and one 78. The essay earning a 93 had several sources integrated throughout (you can read the writer's original proposal here, as the "very good" prompt), showcased the writer's opinion, offered some thoughtful analysis of stereotypes, and had varied structure. The essay earning a 78 was much more rudimentary, with awkward transitions, and a very methodical, step-by-step approach to writing.

Overall, I think this essay served as a good stepping stone between the looser first essay assignment, and the more structured plans I have for essays three and four.

We've started our student-led reading discussions too. I gave the students a handout, and put it up on Moodle, offering suggestions for leading class discussions, which I will put up as a separate post. So far, they have chosen to create questions for the class, following my basic approach of posing questions, breaking the class into small groups, and then coming back together for a larger discussion. I am pretty pleased with the questions thus far, and I can see that the students are gradually becoming more engaged and willing to speak up. When the semester started, few of them would willingly speak up, which I think is the result of their high school training. College is very different! I am getting more fluid discussion results these days though.

Visitation

Today I had my class observed. I won't lie—the mere thought terrified me. I know my students are generally well behaved, and respectful, but what if they chose today to argue, or sit in silence? What if the two leading the discussion weren't prepared, or weren't there?

The evening before, one sent me a printout... a word search she had created. My printer at home wasn't working, so I thought I would get to campus early Thursday morning (this morning), print it, and copy it. Now I know I can't download files on the computer in the TA office... it just doesn't work for me, so I planned to do it at the library. I even had money ready for printing costs. I got there early, as planned.

And the computer was sooooo slow. It kept pausing. I wouldn't load. I was frantically checking the clock, checking the progress, and finally it loaded, and finally I could print the document, and finally I could run off copies. I was nearly six minutes late to class, on a very important day. My observer was, of course, already there, sitting in the corner.

I had not told any of my students about the observation, because I didn't want their nerves on edge too. I opened with our regular check-in, then a journal prompt about what kind of qualities they would look for in a presidential candidate; among the most frequently listed were honesty, integrity, understanding of financial and environmental concerns, and openness. Thankfully, the class went quite well overall, though I wish in hindsight we had spent more time on the discussion (Ruth Padawer's "Sisterhood is Complicated"), and less on the word search. When I spoke with my advisor after the class, he said much the same thing. He did observe how thoughtful they were, and how respectful, so that was good.

What a morning though!

Fun and Games

One thing I have been trying to do this semester is to introduce my students to rhetorical devices, and to improve their sentence structure. Along these lines, we've been doing some writing exercises and some language arts games/activities. Some of the more successful ones have been:

Varying sentence structure: I had them all write as many three-four word sentences as they could in 3 minutes. They then read them aloud, and we all agreed that they sounded very stilted. They spent another three minutes writing the longest run-on possible, then shared that. We ended up agreeing that sentences need to be in between the two extremes, and writing them in a variety of ways/lengths sounds best when read out loud.

Apostrophe (borrowed from another TA): I told them about apostrophe as a rhetoric device (not the punctuation)., gave them examples, and then had them write and share their own.

Collaborative Writing: I asked each student to take out a sheet of paper, and start a story. We then passed the paper to the right, and the next person continued the story, passed it to the right again, and so on. The stories, when read out loud, resulted in gales of laughter!

Irony: I explained irony, and gave examples. They wrote their own ironic sentences and shared them with the class.

We have also worked on:

• Comma splices
• Run-on and fragmented sentences
• Coordinative conjunctions
• Hyperbole and understatement

Working in Groups

I recently assigned my first group project to my students. I split up the reading, "Preface and the New Civil Rights", by Ken Yoshino, into four sections, then broke the class into groups of four as follows:

Group 1: Shayna, Luis, Elly, Stephanie P. Please read "Preface"
Group 2: Moira, Brenda, Gio, Samantha N. Please read from page 541 ("The New Civil Rights") to 543 (end with "...'brothers' of other nations")

Group 3: A.J., Natasha, Elida, Alyssa. Please read from 543 ("The universal rights...") to 545 ("...not my healthiest impulse")

Group 4: Hanna, Mikayla, Stephanie G., Samantha C. Please read 545 ("Law is also an incomplete...") to the end.

I assigned this project as follows:
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I have split this reading up into four sections. The groups listed below are assigned the sections as follows. Each group will be responsible for defining unfamiliar words, summarizing key points, and sharing quotes they find really reflect the author's purpose/writing. Each group will share these ideas in class on Tuesday, after some time working together. I am setting up a Moodle forum for each group -- please contribute BY MONDAY AFTERNOON as this will really help with the in-class work.

And then later in the week...
Continue your Moodle forum discussions over the next couple of days, so that you are prepared, as a group, to share your section of the reading on Tuesday, 9/27/16. Each group will be given about 10 minutes to present their section.
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Discussion in the Moodle forums I set up was... okay. They all posted, but there wasn't quite the give-and-take with responses I was hoping for. I did give them some further advice as well as part of their continuing in-class and Moodle discussions:
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Each group will be given about 10 minutes to present their section. Consider the following as you work:

1. What roles do you want everyone to take on in sharing with the class? Do you want to split the load between paragraphs, ideas, or have some people handle ideas, others vocabulary, etc.? How do you want to share the information you've read?

2. What are the main ideas in your section?
3. Is there any unfamiliar vocabulary, or unusual terminology?
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Finally, we got to presentation day, and again it went... okay. Each group did meet the basic criteria of the assignment, but there wasn't a lot of expansion.

I think for future assignments, I need to be more directive.