Online Reflection #4:
Student-Led Discussions
Here it is time for another
reflection and the timing couldn’t be better.
I just had my first formal observation of the semester and I feel like
it went rather well. After our meeting
with the university supervisor, my CT and I sat down for a little talk of our
own. There are times when I get really
frustrated because I feel like I only hear negative things, and then my CT will
jump in with some positives. I know I
shouldn’t get frustrated because I truly believe she only has my best interests
in mind. My CT is really doing
everything she can to help prepare me for being on my own in a classroom. Anyway, when we began talking she brought up
trying to incorporate more student-led discussion into my activities. Low and behold, when I looked at our reading
for class this week it was about “Alternatives to Teacher-Led
Discussions.” Could it really be
predetermined, is fate just taking over?
Well I am now going to dive into the reading and see what inspiration I
can pull from the material.
One idea I have already come up
with it to change the way I was going to have the students summarize their
homework reading. Originally I was going
to have them summarize the three chapters in their table groups and see what
they come up with. Now I am going to
have them create a timeline of the first six chapters of the book. I will have one student begin by writing one
important event from the chapters, then they will pass it to the next student
and they will write something that happened either before or after that
event. This process will continue around
all four students and keep going until time is up and they hopefully have
detailed the majority of the six chapters.
After the time has expired, I will then ask the students to come up to
the board, starting at the beginning of chapter one, and we will produce the
timeline on the board. The second part
of this activity will allow me the opportunity to take care of a second issue
we discussed, having someone other than the normal select few volunteers
contribute. This way I can call on the
students who do not usually volunteer and encourage them to contribute.
This is one idea I have come up
with without reading the suggestions from the Smagorinsky text. I am looking forward to the reading to see
what other ideas I can incorporate along the unit.
Student led discussions can be amazing when they work, but can sometimes seem difficult to get started or get right the first time. Something that I've used and my CT has used in our classroom are talking chips. I'm not sure where she got them but they are small disc like items (about the size of a quarter but 4 times as thick) that have a small prompt on one side. The student draws a chip at random and then answers the question (such as: what was the main problem?) for how it relates to the assignment. Each student in the group (usually 3-4 per group) has to take turns answering until all of the chips are done.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea that I really like and have seen used is similar to the talking chips. There are four people in the group: One who fans a set of question/prompt cards, one who picks a card at random and reads it, one who answers the question, and one who praises the answer with positive and constructive feedback. The students start with one of the four roles and answer a question card; then the roles switch so that all of the students get a chance to be each role. Usually cards are used to identify who has what role at the time, but it's a nice little exercise for small group discussion!
If you're interested in either of these ideas and want a bit more information (or to see an example of them) let me know! I can show you some of the talking chips and whatnot! Good luck! :)
Jeana,
ReplyDeleteI love the honesty that you put into your post. Student teaching is not easy, you always have pressure on you: from the students, your, CT, yourself, and the list continues.
The activity that you have come up with is great! I have done several round robin activities like you are describing and they have worked well. The advice I would give from my previous lessons: be as simple in the exercise and as explicit in instruction as possible. I have a problem with giving good instructions, and when I write them down I tend to do much better in class.
For future lessons you could look at some Kagen(sp?) strategies, I have a handout if you want to take a look...
Good luck! I am excited to hear how it goes!
---Whitney