Changing Our Classrooms to Prepare Students for a Challenging World: Strategies for enhancing discussions. MLA Newsletter

How Robots in English Class Can Spark Empathy and Improve Writing: Using programming apps with a robot. MindShift

CONDUCT THINK-ALOUD RESPONSES 

Working in pairs or small groups, go through a poem or the beginning of a short story or novel and use a “think-aloud” technique to articulate responses.  In doing so, describe thoughts evoked by the text, as opposed to reflections on those thoughts.  Note instances of difficulties in interpreting the text and reasons for those difficulties.  Note certain patterns in the responses and how the text, audience, or think-aloud technique itself influences those patterns.  Compare the differences between an oral think-aloud response and written freewriting or journal responses.

EMPLOY FACILITATIVE TECHNIQUES 

In everyday conversation with others, adopt the role of discussion facilitator using various kinds of facilitation techniques—asking others to expand on or clarify their ideas, repeating what was said to check interpretations—“you seem to me saying X, is that correct,” involving others in the conversation, bouncing questions asked back to the asker, summarizing the direction or flow of the conversation, using nonverbal cues to signal engagement or involvement, modeling or scaffolding certain ways of thinking, or eliciting further thoughts from participants.  Reflect on the success of these facilitation moves and the level of comfort in being a facilitator.

CONDUCT A MICRO-TEACHING DISCUSSION ACTIVITY 

Working in groups of four in a methods course, each member of the group develops some discussion questions for a text for a 10-minute audio or video-taped micro-teaching discussion.  After each member of the group completes their turn leading the discussion, provide descriptive (versus judgmental) feedback regarding each member’s level of engagement in the discussion, the kinds of questions asked, facilitation techniques, and the degree of mutual interpretation of the text.  If using a video-tape, review the discussion in terms of nonverbal cues employed in facilitating the discussion.

Book Club Discussions Guide Sheet

Rachel Malchow (Microsoft Word Document)