Although I see a lot of language arts time in my placement, I hardly ever see any kind of discussion take place. My MT relies mostly on independent work time for reading and writing-based activities. Any discussions that do happen are what Almasi would call "recitations", where the teacher asks a basic question and calls on volunteers for responses. The students in my classroom haven't had much experience working constructively with their peers- everything is either done on their own or as an entire class. The few times I have seen my MT attempt to use groupwork strategies, it has ended with the students interrupting each other and getting off-task. Because of this, I think a lot of scaffolding would be needed to have a successful response-centered discussion. The kids would need to practice waiting their turn to speak and answering each other's questions rather than responding to what was said by the teacher.
Creating a classroom with response-centered discussion norms would take a lot of work, but I believe it would definitely be worth it. As Almasi described, students benefit greatly from being able to use their critical thinking and reasoning skills and have thoughtful discussions with one another. In addition to educational benefits, kids also receive social and emotional benefits from these types of activities as well. A good way to initiate these discussions would be to go over the "roles" of response-centered talks and have a few practice runs in which the teacher is still relatively involved in the conversation. As time goes on, the teacher could slowly remove his or herself from the discussions and allow students to take over.
Like Emily, I also do not see much discussion taking place. While the students are very young (kindergarten) I do feel like they are mature enough to handle it. However, also like Emily said, students need a lot of scaffolding in order to maintain a healthy and productive discussion. From what I do see in my classroom though I think my mentor teacher has done a great job working with the students on their talking and listening skills and I think this type of discussion may work. I think the students are mature enough to know when to listen and how to take turns talking to each other.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Emily that these discussions can be beneficial in many ways. It not only teaches students to be independent but it also gives students an opportunity to speak their mind and be open-minded. Also, I think Emily had a great idea about slowly removing the teacher form the discussions so the students have an opportunity to take over after awhile. I think this would be very effective because it will allow students to become comfortable with these types of discussions over time.
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ReplyDeleteI feel as if I have witnessed the beginning stages of discussion taking place in my placement classroom, with much focus being placed on such questions as “who was in the story?” “what happened in the beginning/middle/ end?” “what do you think will happen next?” “why do you think that happened?” etc as the teacher seems to be focused on characters, sequencing, predictions, and patterns within literature. However, a discussion did occur last week during one of these literature readings. The main character in the story repeatedly ruins opportunities for the other main character to make friends. In the middle of the story, one student blurted out, “Ralph is so rotten.” Another student immediately interjected, but struggled to articulate his response. I was pleased when my MT did not simply brush off his attempt to add to the discussion, but instead, simply waited as he continued to repeat, “yeah but that’s because, because, because…” He finally created an argument, and stated that the character was rotten “because he doesn’t want to lose her (other main character.) I was impressed by this response and felt it was an example of stepping into the story and moving through.
ReplyDeleteAfter witnessing this type of activity in the classroom, I believe a literature discussion is largely possible. Although the students are in kindergarten, they are already used to engaging with literature at a level higher than simply listening to the story. I agree that at first, teacher involvement is necessary to get the discussion to the level at which students begin engaging more deeply. However, I feel as if it is most effective if a teacher first lets students’ initial thoughts and reactions play into the discussion. In the case of my MT, while she let the student contribute their thoughts, a real discussion didn’t necessarily follow-although other students tended to disagree as they felt the character’s behavior was inexcusable. I feel this could have built into a larger discussion with a core around morals and behaviors. There is always room for growth. In the case of my placement classroom, I feel discussion has begun and it could significantly grow from where it is already heading!