Blog 3

In “Discussions as a Way of Teaching” by Brookfield it states that discussions fail because there are unrealistic expectations, unprepared students, no ground rules, reward system askew, and no teacher modeling. I believe before having small or large group discussions, as a teacher I have to create a safe learning environment for students. In the beginning of the year, I would like to implement academic team-building exercises so students learn and understand the environment they will be learning in. I believe that implementing discussions inside in all content areas is important to help students do collaborative learning. In the article, it lists common claims for discussion on how it helps students. I agree that discussion helps students explore diversity perspectives, develops habits for clear communication, become connected to a topic, and recognize and investigate their assumption. Those common claims are so true and important for me to implement inside my Social Studies classroom.  I want students to be able to analyze, critically think, connect, and share their ideas on the given topic we may be covering. 

I really enjoyed this article because it provided a set of ground rules for class discussions and in-group discussion models. My favorite technique for setting ground rules is allowing students to develop those rules for discussion. I want my future students to feel and know that I care of their thoughts and ideas. In creating those ground rules together, it helps develop community within the class. I believe this would change student’s view from seeing these as rules from the teacher to behavior expectations of one another. I also believe that it is important to check if students are prepared for full group discussions. One of the suggestions from the article is doing a learning audit, where we question the students on what they know. This can be in a form of a 3-2-1 exit ticket where they write three things they learned, two thing they want to learn, and one question on the day’s lesson. In receiving this feedback, as a teacher I can evaluate what I need to reteach, what interest the students, and determine whether students are ready for discussion.