For today's meeting (12/12), here's my contribution. Below are the rules for my "Circle Discussions."
Directions for Circle Discussions:
1. If you've been assigned a text in advance, read it carefully, taking notes. Jot down questions, thoughts, responses, and ideas you want to share. I'll let you use your notes during the discussion. (Your Reading Journal will come in handy here.)
2. Usually, the goal is for each student to earn five points during the session.
3. We will sit in a circle, and I'll start by asking for a volunteer to start the discussion with a comment or question.
4. Only one student may speak at a time.
5. When one student finishes speaking, he/she calls on someone else (who is raising a hand). Try not to call on the same people over and over: look all around the circle to see who has a hand up. (At times, I may require someone from one half of the circle call on someone from the other half.)
6. Using classdojo.com, I will record participation points as students speak. No one gets points for repeating what someone else has said. No points are awarded for yes/no questions.
7. Once a student reaches the minimum points, I may tell that student not to speak until everyone else reaches the minimum (ask me to show you the hand-signal I use for this!). Once I feel the other students have had enough of an opportunity to participate, I may lift the gag rule (ask me to show you the hand-signal for this!).
8. Before you change the subject, ask the class if anyone wants to add something to the current topic.
9. I will participate, if necessary, only to correct misunderstandings, supply information that no one else has, move the discussion to a new topic, or bring it back to an unfinished issue.
10. If I decide to add an online dimension to our face-to-face discussion, I’ll give you the code/link to the relevant tool/site, and you can participate in that way. But keep these guidelines in mind:
- You must always identify yourself—no anonymous contributions! Use your first name and your last initial.
- You must always be polite and respectful: I will monitor and save these online conversations. I might also, from time to time, project them on the screen so that the online conversation can influence the face-to-face conversation.
- Do your best to write well—no text-speak!
- We will practice with the various tools so that you learn their limitations/features.
- No matter how many times you participate online, I will always expect you to earn at least three of your five points by speaking: in fact, I will have higher standards for judging your online comments than for assessing your spoken contributions to the discussion.
- If needed, I may design a system of hand-signals whereby you request and are granted permission to comment online, so that I can keep track of how many folks are doing so at once and prevent dead moments in the live conversation.
- Anyone who uses the internet inappropriately (or texts) during discussion will get a zero for the discussion.
11. The best kinds of comments, online or face-to-face, are ones that respond specifically to the ideas of others and that make us all think more deeply about the text in question.
12. I will keep track of your participation, so I expect you to be focused completely on the conversation; should you appear to be more focused on how many points you have than on what folks are saying, you will earn a zero for the discussion.
Note: I have not used #10, as I have yet to introduce any online discussion component to my classes--I'm not sure I will...
On the 19th, in my period 4A AP class, we'll be discussing Ibsen's A Doll's House. You are invited to come and listen to the discussion, if you like! If you are interested, let me know.
I will also be having discussions of Sherman Alexie's Flight in my English 12 classes:
- Friday, the 13th, during 1A;
- Wednesday, the 18th, during 2B;
- and Thursday, the 19th, during 1A & 2A.
These discussions usually start about 40 minutes into the class period... You can also come and observe these discussions, if you like. 2A is the class that has the hardest time with these discussions...
Thanks, Susan. Discussions and group process have always been interesting puzzles for me to navigate. I like the effort to monitor here. Rather than the effort to monitor student participation in the live discussion, I've used both hard-copy handouts as well as Google docs which students have been required (a) to use to record their interpretations of materials for discussion, (b) to complete prior to discussion, and--in the case of the hard copy handouts--to submit to me prior to discussion. The embargo function under doctopus has made using Google docs in this way a breeze: they complete their personal work; I embargo their documents at a designated time, and they still have access to their notes, but without editing privileges. Thus, I have a better gauge on what is their own thinking.
ReplyDeleteI tried this discussion circle format in my AP Spanish class with a poem by José Martí and had great success. To your 9th point, I found it very difficult to not jump into the discussion, but it was very satisfying to see students build off each other's ideas and construct an understanding of the poem together. Thanks so much for the idea! I very much look forward to using it again.
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