I think it is important to involve recitation, teacher-guided reporting and response-centered discussion in all classroom settings. I have not received my field placement so I am interested to see if (and how) my CT incorporates all of these types of discussion. Throughout my last four years at Michigan State most of my classes have been recitation. I always figured this was because my concentration is integrated science so I take many large science lectures. Last year, I took my first science class (SME 320) that was not primarily recitation. The teacher stimulated a lot of response-centered discussion and a lot of times would leave us wondering and wanting to know more about the topic being discussed. SME 320 ended up being one of my favorite classes and I learned more than any other class I have ever taken here at State. However, I think recitation does have an important place in all classrooms. I know I could never have a response-centered discussion about the composition of molecules in chemistry, until I was provided enough background knowledge through recitation. One reason I think SME 320 response-centered discussions were so successful is because we all had taken the prerequisites so we had a lot of the background information needed. A lot of TE classes have also always been response-centered talk. My TE 250 teacher was great at getting discussion started and then wouldn’t say anything for an hour and we’d still be going making valid points about the reading and expanding it to what we saw in our field placements.
In my future classes I would like to help my students participate in meaningful response-centered discussions. I like how Gibbons says how participating in group discussions “serve as an effective prompt of learning and helps students develop a sense of personal worth and responsibility” (p. 26). I think the sense of responsibility makes students feel proud and they start to pay attention more so they can fulfill this responsibility. I also really liked the teacher-guided reporting Gibbons discussed in Chapter 2. I think this is a great way to provide scaffolding that allows the student to clarify his/her idea they are reporting to the class. In past field placements I have seen teachers do this with explaining how they solved a math problem. I always noticed how it kept the students attention better than when the teacher explained a problem. I cannot wait to start field so I can see how these ideas are incorporated into the classroom. =)
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Jessica,
I think you make some very valid points in your post. I think it is important to provide a combination of recitation, teacher-guided reporting and response-centered discussion in all classroom settings. The key for us teachers is going to be to know how and when to incorporate all types of discussions into our classroom. Most of my classes here at MSU have been recitation based classes. Since my concentration is integrated social studies, many of my classes took place in large lecture halls. In these types of classes, the teacher usually just stands at the front of the class and lectures. To me, recitation based classes always were very boring and usually I would drift off and think about something else because I was not able to participate in the discussion. Since my history and your science classes are usually recitation based classes, do you believe that some subjects are better response centered and some are better recitation based? If so, why? Do you think that there could be a way to incorporate response-centered discussions in these large classes to make them more interesting and exciting?
I have not taken SME 320, but I have taken SME 301. That class was mostly response-centered discussion, and I really felt like I learned a lot from my other classmates. Just like SME, all my TE classes have been response-centered discussion classes. However, whether or not the response centered discussion was successful depended on the teacher of the class. For example, in one of my TE classes, the teacher did not know how to be quiet. Just like stated in the McGee article, they had a hard time standing back and letting the students take control. Another problem with response-centered talk in some of my classes was that some students tend to dominate the discussion, while other do not talk at all. What are some ways that you as a teacher could help solve these problems? Especially when it comes to ELL’s, what are some ways in which you could make sure they took part in the discussion? Also, in your post you state, “In my future classes I would like to help my students participate in meaningful response-centered discussions”. What are some ways in which you are going to make sure that a meaningful discussion takes place? Like you, I am very excited to see how my CT teacher incorporates all of these discussion types into her classroom.
Carrie
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