How to Facilitate Meaningful Discussion About Text
Introduction
One of the major purposes of discussion in a classroom environment surrounding text is to help students see the connections between important themes, concepts, and ideas and the outside world. (Darling-Hammond, 2008) This lesson will help you understand how students create meaning from text (in our case, primary sources from the founding of America) through classroom (or virtual classroom) based discussion.
After reading and participating in an online discussion based on the readings, you will craft a discussion activity for your sample lesson based on the text you chose.
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Comprehend the importance of classroom discussion in creating a safe learning environment in which students are able to work collaboratively.
- Create a discussion activity for a sample lesson after learning how classroom discussion fosters critical thinking skills.
Readings
1) Influence on Social Studies Teachers' use of Classroom Discussion by Bruce Larson
This article details the use of classroom discussion in six different classroom across the country. Pay attention to the similarities and differences between schools and think about how different backgrounds and intelligence's may be involved.
2) Scaffolding Discussion Article
This article gives some great advice and techniques for scaffolding discussion for your mini-lesson
Tasks
1) Read all the articles found above.
2) Participate in class discussion on classroom discussion.
After reading the articles above, answer the following questions in an initial response:
1) What are the benefits of student driven discussion?
2) What has your personal experience been with discussion based learning? Benefits? Problems?
3) How does classroom discussion link in with our understanding of mindful engagement?
IMPORTANT:
- Make one initial post answering the questions
- Respond to at least two of your classmates initial post
- Comment to all students who post under your initial post.
3) Create a discussion activity for sample lesson.
You will create a discussion activity based on the text you chose earlier in this mini course. Now that you have instructional objectives, you will create an activity where you will facilitate a discussion. Using your knowledge of mindful engagement, mold questions that utilize your students' prior knowledge and in turn stimulates conversation.
At the end of this activity you should have a discussion activity that is consistent with your instructional objectives that were created last week. You should have a list of stimulating questions about your specific text. Please e-mail this assignment to your instructor by the end of the week/beginning of next weeks lesson.
Assessment
1) See Discussion Rubric at the bottom of Lesson #1
2) Lesson Activity
See Task #3
Move On!
Move on to Lesson #5
or
Go Back to Lesson #1, Lesson #2, Lesson #4
Resources and References
1) Darling-Hammond, Linda. Powerful Learning: What We Know About Teaching For Understanding. 1st ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008. Print.
2) Larson, Bruce. "Influence on Social Studies Teachers' Use of Classroom Discussion." The Clearing House 73.3 (2000): 174-81. Web.
3)"SCAFFOLDING DISCUSSIONS - Design Patterns 101." SCAFFOLDING DISCUSSIONS - Design Patterns 101. Google Sites, n.d. Web.