Discussion as a way of Teaching

Something that I thought was different was how he/she suggested asking the students how they wanted to be spoken to during discussion time. I found this interesting, because I haven’t experienced this throughout my education. I also thought that during the discussion on how to be spoken to, the class or group can come up with their own set of questions or rules for discussion time. I feel like this allows the students to have some control, and this would help them feel comfortable. An idea that I thought was brilliant was the discussion moves and the suggestions that follow, as well as the conversational roles the discussion moves is something that I’ve never heard of and would like to try in a classroom. I would also like to see how the conversational role play out in a discussion setting, and it would be something I would like to experiment with in my future classroom.

A question that I have had throughout my education has been why does everyone have to participate in discussion in a class period. I now understand that by forcing a student to participate, allows them to break the cycle that they’re creating. However, how much of the discussion do we (as teachers) force them to participate in? Something that I would ask future or current teachers; would you use the “Hatful of Quotes” at the beginning and then stop using them later in the quarter/semester? Why would you continue or stop using?

Closing question; what do you agree or disagree with in “Discussion as a way of Teaching” by     Stephen Brookfield?