Fostering+Discussion

Use the following resources to help you answer these questions:
Aim to spend about 90-120 minutes preparing. Develop a place/system for keeping track of your learning. Be sure you answer in writing the following questions **according to what you learned by perusing the resources.** Upload your answers to Blackboard.
 * What are characteristics of effective, engaging classroom discussion?
 * What factors can sabotage good discussion?
 * What can teachers do to facilitate wide-spread participation in a class discussion?
 * How can teachers cultivate a classroom community and behavior norms that supports safe, effective, and engaging discussion?

What not to do . . ..
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Ideas for Supporting Rich Classroom Discussions

 * Prepare
 * Create a safe and supportive community
 * Establish norms for discussion
 * Teach listening & discussion skills
 * Require students to be prepared for discussion
 * Prior reading, writing, thinking, doing related to the discussion topic
 * Plan the discussion
 * Establish a learning purpose
 * Prepare good questions
 * Promote Participation
 * Wait time
 * Think time
 * Writing first
 * Discuss first with partners or small groups
 * Surveys/Opinion questions first
 * Encourage a variety of people to speak
 * Don't call on first person to raise his/her hand
 * Vary who talks
 * Question addressed to a specific person (say the question first)
 * Call on students by their location in the classroom (e.g. "Let's hear from someone sitting in the middle) or some other characteristic (e.g. "I'd like to hear from someone who was born in the summer")
 * Random selection of speaker (e.g. drawing sticks)
 * Assess Learning
 * Pause to summarize learning
 * Ask students to articulate what they've learned (e.g. exit slips)
 * Include discussion content on assessments
 * Make discussions a central part of future instructional activities (Participating in this discussion enables you to complete a task)
 * Be explicit about what you learned from the discussion

Read "Leading scintillating, stimulating, substantive class discussions" -- http://www.columbia.edu/cu/tat/pdfs/discussions.pdf Read - follow the the three links to see the entire module. (This is good stuff!) "Using Discussion in the Classroom" - http://dev.natcom.org/uploadedFiles/Teaching_and_Learning/Virtual_Faculty_Lounge/In_the_Classroom/PDF-InTheClassroom-Using_Discussion.pdf "Learning to Discuss: Strategies for Improving the Quality of Class Discussions" - http://poli375engage.pbworks.com/f/0-1.pdf http://janineschaub.com/discussion-strategies/ "How to conduct classroom discussion" http://www.telt.um.edu.my/5discuss.html

Watch
Choose three videos. Pay attention to specific strategies teachers use to promote discussion.

Classroom Video Examples
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/03/07/magazine/20100307-teacher-videos.html#/calling - Click on "calling on students" which is a 7th grade math class http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuNJTeIN79Y - High School social studies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrUQBtAQOYc&feature=context-chv - high school psychology https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-online-behavior - middle school English https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/conjecture-lesson-plan - middle school math https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/elements-of-music - music


 * Sources Added by GU Teaching Candidates: **

ABC News: What it means to be a good teacher [] user:sbockelman

[|Closing the Achievement Gap] This is the story of a school who used Differentiation and Enrichment to help close the achievement gap. user:Lomacey

[|Differentiation] Although this article is about a school in Russia, it talks about how differentiation is necessary to adequately teach lower-income students. user:Lomacey

Ideas, resources, and strategies for classroom debate (English/La - All grades): http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson304b.shtml user:jarmour500

13 Strategies to Improve Student Classroom Discussions: user:quinlynw http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2015/03/18/13-strategies-to-improve-student-classroom-discussions