Some General Discussion Leader Techniques That I Need to Point out to the Class As a Whole

Discussions GLY5876 2011

The Routine Questions: Everyone in the class is responsible for submitting one question related to the readings (send to [email protected]) by noon the day before the discussion. Try to pose questions that get at important points in the paper rather than asking for clarifications of details. These are questions the leaders can then use to keep a discussion active and that everyone can use to prepare for discussion.

Quizzes: We will have a short quiz at the beginning of each discussion (10% of your grade). We will send out an email Tues. morning before the discussion giving you some guidance on the types of questions we might ask.

Tips for Discussion Leaders The role of the discussion leaders is to facility the discussion. They are not responsible for answering everyone’s questions, instead their job is to ask questions that will lead to a discussion where everyone in the class (remember everyone has read the papers) can help answer the questions and/or bring up important points in the paper. The ultimate goal is to develop a better understanding of the paper(s). To accomplish this, the leaders need to have a thorough understanding of the papers and, potentially, other background materials. Without this knowledge it is often difficult to understand questions posed by other students, elicit responses from the other students, or to recognize when the discussion is going astray.

The first goal for the leaders is to make sure everyone has a basic grasp of key concepts in the papers. That may require asking questions about the paper(s) that seem obvious to the leaders given that they’ve probably read the papers over and over, but remember most of the class will have only read through it once. To draw others into the discussion leaders could elicit feedback from the class and write their key points on the board. Once everyone has a grasp of the basics, the ultimate goal is to use that knowledge to move into a more thought-provoking discussion.

Have a plan: Having a plan is critical- what topics do you want to cover and how will one topic lead to another? You can use the questions provided by the class as well as your own interests to determine the focus of the discussion. A good strategy is to write your plan/outline on the board or print out a copy to hand out.

Working together: Discussions tend to be more successful when the leaders work together. In the past some leaders have divided up the workload along arbitrary lines and then prepared individually and submitted separate questions. This strategy rarely works since it does not lead to integrated discussions. In addition to working together, it helps for the leaders to sit together in the front of the room. If the leaders don’t take control of the discussion, the class often resorts to addressing questions and comments to me, and that is not the goal. Asking questions: If you ask a question of the class and don’t get a response right away, don’t assume no one has an answer. From being the participants in a discussion you know that those questions sometimes take a different path than your own thought process. It takes a minute to switch gears and then more time to come up with a response. Give people time to think and respond. Count to 15. If there is still no response try to rephrase the question. On the other hand if you are only getting blank stares after a while, you clearly need to reconstruct the question or provide some background information.

Basic Points: 1. Have an organized plan for the topics you want to cover and share that with the class- write an outline on the board or hand it out. Also have a plan for how the leaders will divide the workload. 2. Your role is to facilitate the discussion, not to answer all the questions. Instead, you should be asking a lot of questions of the class. Help lead the class through the thought process required to get to the answers. Ask leading questions. 3. Review the basic points of the paper(s). The questions from the class can help you identify areas of confusion. 4. Give people time to respond. Reword questions or ask leading questions if necessary. 5. Remember you know the papers better than everyone else.

Comments to the class: Everyone needs to participate and that means everyone needs to be prepared and talk! The questions everyone submits before the discussion provide a good way to prepare. A good strategy is to review the papers the day before or the morning of the discussion and think through answers to all of the class questions. If you don’t know how to respond to a question, at least prepare intelligent questions about it.