Monday, February 13, 2012
Classroom Discussion
In my fifth grade classroom, there is discussion led by the teacher most times. They read a chapter book after lunch and my MT will stop and ask them questions. The students will raise their hands to answer and give their opinion. She will keep calling on students without giving any feedback, and the students keep discussing the book. A few times a student will ask a question to another student or give their own feedback to them. I like this kind of discussion in the classroom because it shows that the students are engaged and excited about the material. The teacher will not only ask them questions straight from the text, but deeper questions that they have to make connections with and think a bit more. One thing I wish my MT would do more is small group discussions because often in the large classroom setting, only the few students who like to participate are discussing the book. The shy students just sit and listen. During math class, the teacher will start off with a problem on the board and call on a random student to talk through the problem to the class. Other students will raise their hands to comment or add something he/she forgot. I think it's important to have discussion in math as well as reading. In the reading they talked about how important it is to have the teacher facilitate and give the students feedback. Although for younger grades, the teacher may need to facilitate the discussions to keep the students from telling stories, I believe that in fifth grade the students are capable of keeping on task while discussing what they read. Small group discussions would give the students more of an opportunity to get their opinions out without having to do it in the large classroom setting. For each five chapters of their book, the students have questions to answer. Most of the time, after she grades them, the students have to re-do them. I would be curious to see that if they did their questions as small groups. how it would turn out and if they would be able to discuss the questions to write them down, and if they would be able to stay on topic while doing so.
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So are the questions that they work on to turn in the questions that are used during the discussion? When the re-do them are they allowed to use the ideas and opinions that were brought up during the whole group discussion? I think that giving students specific questions to focus on during discussions might hinder the depth of their discussion. I feel like students might focus too much on answering the question and not as much on sharing opinions and digging deeper into the text. Is that something that you have noticed or not really? It is a good idea to help students stay focused on an idea but at fifth grade I think they should be pretty good at this.
ReplyDeleteYou said that you wished your MT would do small group discussions. So this is something you would want to do in your classroom then? How would you handle it? Like would you assign each student a role or would you allow them to share openly. Also, as a teacher what would you do during this time? Spend it with one group guiding them or walking around and spending a little time monitoring each group?
No, the questions they work on are handed out after discussion. After they turn them in, my MT decides if they are suitable or not. If the answers aren't up to her standards, she has them re-do them. They are definitely allowed to use the ideas brought up during the whole group discussion, and most students do. However, it is just a matter of the student relating what was said in discussion to themselves and to put it in their own words. I agree with you when you said that giving students specific questions hinders the depth of their discussion. Often times in discussion, she will ask the students simple questions that are not open ended and require only having read the chapter to answer. I feel as though she asks these to make sure the students are focused and paying attention, and not really to spark a meaningful discussion. I also think that if students had the opportunity to discuss more instead of answering those types of questions, they could share opinions about the book and make connections to their own lives.
ReplyDeleteIn my own classroom, I would love to have small group discussions. While the rest of the class is reading silently, a group of students could come to a table and we could discuss something that we've all read together. This gives the shy students an opportunity to participate and behavioral issues wouldn't be an issue since I will be sitting right there with the students. I would start the discussions off by having the students share openly, and letting them know that it is a safe environment where we can discuss opinions and connections related to the book. After a few discussions, I could play around with the idea of assigning roles to students, and the ultimate goal would be for the students to lead their own discussions.