"Discussion as a Way of Teaching"

The first thing that caught my eye in this reading is that it states that discussion does not have a predetermined end point. That is a good point to consider when going into discussion: not trying to reach a certain point or conclusion, but discussing the topic to talk about as much as possible.

There are a lot of reasons why discussion can fail, and that worries me as a teacher. If I set up a discussion for the class period and any one of these reasons pop up, it could jeopardize the whole day and that is a lot to worry about. Reading the story near the end of the reading just worried me more at how quickly a discussion can get out of hand and the struggle of getting it back on track, or on track in the first place. My best assurance to have a successful discussion is to cover all of these reasons and be as prepared as possible for the discussion. Using the different methods that this article talks about will also help make sure that the discussions do not fail,


Even though a lot of pressure is put on me as a teacher to have a good discussion, the part of the responsibility definitely falls on the students to be ready to have a good discussion. Talking about what they expect from a good discussion and what they think is a bad discussion will help them keep themselves on track during their discussion to make it successful.

A big concern for a discussion is trying to make sure that all the students are involved and participate in one form or the other. I strongly believe that a student shouldn't be forced to talk but should feel as comfortable as possible to want to talk and contribute to the discussion. There were many different exercises that made sure that all students were talking and participating. Circle of voices and hatful of quotes, were good examples of this. But I think that having too strict of a rule on what the students can say hinders a conversation more than helps it. And that goes for a lot of these exercises, I think students should talk about the topic given and have more of a guideline of what to stick to rather than be forced to stick to saying something one way or speaking about one specific thing.

I also enjoyed the different activities that gave students roles to play during discussion, whether it be picking a side in debate or being a conversation role. This makes it more fun for the students and gives the shy students less to have to talk about and only have to focus on talking about one thing if they feel the want to. This also prevents people from just saying "yeah I agree with what he said" and the discussion kind of dying down.

The hardest thing that I find for discussions is making sure they don't dwindle out or people run out of points to discuss. I enjoyed the idea of having the list of questions that the students or teacher could have to prompt more conversation. Or the different moving of stations to get children to see new perspectives and ideas to add to their discussion (newsprint dialogue, rotating stations, and snowballing). Too many times has a discussion in class just turned into a repetitive talk and everyone saying the same thing. I particularly liked snowballing in the way that small discussions grew into the whole class discussion by the end of the day. I am definitely going to try and implement that into my classroom if I can.

While this reading had a ton of great ideas and activities that will be helpful to use in the classroom when it comes time for discussion, there were a few things i didn't agree with. Mainly that some of the activities had too many rules and restrictions that could get confusing or limit the conversation. I also don't agree with the idea to give a grade on discussion. I feel like it goes against what was said about it being okay for students not to talk in the classroom if they don't feel comfortable. But, I will use some of these techniques and feel slightly more comfortable about leading a discussion knowing I have some tricks to help keep it moving.

"The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Instruction in Grades 6-12"

Question: It says that the Common Core State Standards are from 2010. Is that the newest edition, or has it been updated since then? If not, will it be updated again soon?

A relief that I find with the standards is that it does not come off as strict as I originally thought that it would be. The reading states that it does not dictate "what" I use or "how" I get to the goals that I need to get to with the standards. Where it seems I will run into most trouble is adapting to the curriculum that is already set at the school. Schools and teachers will already know what needs to be taught and will teach the same things over and over regardless of the type of students that are in their classroom. I hope I will be able to find ways to break out of that mold and teach to help students specifically in my room rather than going with what has worked in the past. Of course, this is easier said than done.

Another problem that will come with teaching is trying to teach in the 21st century. I already feel the struggles of teaching in the 21st century even as a student teacher. A majority of the Students are bored of powerpoints and taking notes on paper and reading from books. Reading about the examples that other students used to implement technology and new ways of teaching and hearing more will help me be more prepared to do it on my own. Having the students make Youtube videos and role play through forums on topics that are important and interesting to them were really good examples of what can be done in the 21st century. I have had to do things like this in my college classes and would love to see it more in secondary classes. My mentor teacher is even having students make videos on gods and goddesses from Greek mythology to get the children more involved in what they are learning.

Side Note: Teaching to the test is the worst.

What is important is that I make sure that I, as a teacher, make the curriculum my own and cater it to my students. It will be difficult to juggle all the things that the chapter has discussed: school's curriculum, standards, 21st-century teaching, diversity, poverty, and much more. It is something that I will have to learn and prepare for so I can do my best once I become a teacher and have 100s of students to help with their education.