There isn't much discussion based learning going on in my placements that I can see. When the students are reading, they are doing it more for the practice rather than the analysis of it. They are reading so they can become more fluent and be able to pass their reading tests so they're not placed with the low leveled readers.
I've never seen the entire class have a discussion over a book. I haven't even seen IRE based instruction over a book. The closest thing that I can think of is, when I read with small groups (about 5-6 students), the manual tells me to ask certain questions mostly based on comprehension. There are also questions such as, "why do you think the author chose to..." "Where's the homophone in this sentence?" "What generalizations can you make about..." etc. The kids answer, and yes, sometimes that creates some form of a discussion but it's not a very good one.
I think, first, the teacher needs to show the students how to have a discussion over a book by asking possible controversial or deep questions and trying to probe the students for stronger arguments and answers. The teacher also needs a rich text to work off of. A lot of the stuff we've been reading in my placement are science books that are purely facts and no real imagination. The students can't have vigorous discussions based off of the text books they've been reading.
Hopefully, after showing the students how it's done, then the teacher can have them try to do it on their own. It would be a wise idea for the students to be assigned certain jobs (as said in our readings) so each student can be responsible in participating in some form to the discussion. This will help the shyer students feel like they need to speak up; they know they have a responsibility to fulfill a certain job.
The shy students also need to feel that their opinion is valuable. The teacher can scaffold this while listening to each students' opinion and making statements such as, "that's a great thought. Does anyone agree with ______? Why do you feel that way?" Once the shy students see that other kids will agree with what they say or at least respect their opinions, then they will be more inclined to participate.
This sounds very much like my placement. The only discussion I have seen is when I work with a small group of students in the hall. I have never seen a whole class discussion and I have not even seen the whole class reading the same book. Just as in your classroom Melody, the only purpose of reading these books seems to be to improve fluency and a little comprehension. I usually work with the most advanced group and they usually get assigned factual books (we have read one about the desert and about bridges) that are straightforward and textbook-like. It makes it very difficult to have a good discussion when working with these types of books. I agree completely that the teacher needs to choose a rich text to work of off in order to develop an interesting and meaningful discussion. I think The Lady in the Box or books similar to that would be great books to introduce in my classroom, and I look forward to seeing what my students have to say when reading a book with controversial topics in my lesson.
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up an interesting point in your post about how your students do, at times, have a little discussion but it is not a very good one. What would you constitute as a good discussion? And do you think that even though their discussion might not be very good it is at least the beginning stages of getting them to have deeper discussions? Maybe just getting them in to the habit and mindset of how a discussion works, even if the conversation isn't that great, is okay. Regardless, I definitely understand what you mean by not seeing much discussion in the classroom and having the students only read to strengthen their fluency or other things just to move up to the next reading level. I see that a lot in my classroom too, but sometimes my CT will sit down with a select few students and ask them some basic questions about the text, but again, this is more of IRE type of talk. I also liked your idea on how to scaffold certain students who may have trouble with participating. I had similar ideas to the ones you presented and I think it is so important to make sure they are staying involved. Good thoughts and ideas for this week!
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