As a future teacher, I have mixed views on the roles of discussion within a classroom setting. I was very quiet throughout my schooling, and remember becoming upset and nervous about the prospect of being forced to share my opinion in order to get credit for participation once I reached college. Although many discussions focus on the students and the thoughts and ideas they bring to the atmosphere of the classroom, I believe that it is up to the teachers to build trust and engage the students in such a way that they will be willing to share.
Unfortunately, I have not seen many examples of group discussion in my placement. I am in a Montessori school this year, which means that students work independently to complete a set amount of lessons throughout the week. My collaborating teacher rarely gets up in front of the entire class to teach. The one time this happened while I was present, the students discussed bullying; what it looks like and how to react when it happens. The discussion was very teacher-centered, with students simply talking to her instead of letting their ideas develop without needing validation. I was reminded of this when I was reading the Almasi article and it said, "the teacher becomes the ultimate interpretive authority". Instead of letting their definitions and ideas about bullying build off of one another, the students had to get teacher approval before sharing additional ideas. During their normal "work time" they are allowed to talk to one another and collaborate, but there is no structured discussion in a large group setting. The lessons that occur take place in smaller groups, often with the teacher asking questions that have an expected answer from one of the students. The focus of these lessons is either mathematics or grammar, so they do not give the students a lot of opportunity to come up with and share their own opinion with others. I believe that the teacher in my placement is reading a book to the entire class, but I am never present when this activity is taking place, and the only times I hear the teacher referring to it is when she is asking the students comprehension questions.
A lot of good scaffolding ideas were mentioned in the Goldenburg article that I read for class this week. He talked about how important teacher preparation is to conducting quality discussions. The teacher must be aware of the theme of the chosen literature before presenting it to the class. Also, the teacher must provide students with the background knowledge that they need in order to understand the theme of the literature. For example, if the writing is about an event and how people from a particular culture respond to it, students must be aware of the basics of that culture, and they must be able to look at different points of view before reading the literature. This is an essential aspect of scaffolding with students who speak English as a second language, and also emphasizes the importance of knowing your students, as we have discussed at length in class so far this semester. Another part of scaffolding that was mentioned in the Goldenburg article was choosing appropriate texts for the age level and experiences of the students. This could be difficult to do in classes where multiple cultures, ages, and levels of knowledge are represented, but it is important nonetheless. Even choosing a picture book to discuss can lead to meaningful, deep discussions. We saw many examples of these types of books last week in class.
Another way that teachers must scaffold students takes place during the actual discussion. Sometimes students can get off-topic and need to be redirected so that they stay focused on the important content. I experienced this when I was teaching my social studies lesson last semester. I led a small group of students in a discussion about the first Thanksgiving, and they kept redirecting the topic of discussion to what they imagined the first Thanksgiving to be like instead of the facts that they were reading from the primary and secondary sources that I provided and how their views were shaped or changed as a result. Students can get off-topic in other ways as well. Teachers need to shape the discussions when too many topics are being introduced in a short amount of time. An example of this was given in the Almasi article as well. In that situation, the teacher had to remind the students to complete their current thoughts before moving onto a new idea.
Overall, I learned a lot about discussions through the readings that we did for this week. I believe that it is important not to minimize the role that a teacher must still play in discussion even if the students are shaping the flow of responses. With the correct teacher scaffolding, all students will be able to teach each other through their ideas about literature, and the classroom will become a safe, secure place for students to develop and grow.
