Facilitating+Student+Discussions

Facilitating Student Discussions
During the recent workshop with Becky Koesel hosted by KISD, we had the opportunity to watch videos of students in action. For many of us, the most notable accomplishment in those video samples was how the students interacted with each other. They stayed on topic, they knew how to interrupt and how to disagree politely. They took turns as though they had already been well-trained on the structure of a literary discussion.

How can I make my students do that?

If you're like me, then you may find the idea of student-led literary discussions to be daunting, if not impossible. In my own haphazard attempts, students have been put into groups and encouraged to talk about their novels. Usually, there is some kind of main topic or focus question to get the kids going. They move in to groups, and become fully engaged in their discussions....which usually have nothing to do with the book.

So how do we accomplish it? How do we give students the structure and confidence to lead their own book discussions? How do we teach them what to look for? How do we get them so excited about the topic at hand?

One of Becky Koesel's repeated points throughout her presentation was that when students don't do what we want them to do, there is often a reason. The assignment is unclear. They don't understand the book. They don't know what to say. They don't know HOW to have a scholarly, collegiate discussion. Before blaming these problems not the fact that these students are not, in fact, collegiate students, we should consider how we can eliminate the barriers to effective literary discussion. Give them the tools and structure they need to do it successfully.

Great. Any ideas?

Here are a few solutions that dawned on me, that I would like to try soon in the classroom. I'll let you know how it goes.

Give students something to say by providing them with sentence stems to start the discussion. ESOL teachers are already familiar with this technique, but it can be applied to any classroom. Before setting the students loose, arm them with super intelligent-sounding things to say, such as: Then there are the interpersonal stems, the things that trained adults say to agree or disagree with others, such as:
 * 1) **Use Sentence Stems to Get Them Started**
 * One thing I noticed about (the character) is that.....
 * I think the character wants.......but.......
 * The author created a mood of .....in this chapter by......
 * I see your point, but I also think....
 * Expanding on that ________ said,
 * Yes, but....
 * When _____ said _____, it made me think.....
 * 2. Set the ground rules for discussion. A few suggestions:**
 * When first starting out, make the students speak in a rotation, each student having a turn.
 * Choose a leader for each group who can help move the conversation back on track. This student would require some emerging leadership skills to guide the conversation tactfully and efficiently.
 * Monitor, monitor, monitor. But resist (I may need tape on my mouth to to this) the urge to step in and "save" the conversation. Just
 * Be polite and respectful of each other's opinions.

These two starter guidelines aren't nearly enough to get a good discussion going among small groups. That's why I need your help, as blog contributors, to add to our own discussion. Do you have small-group book discussions in your classroom that work? How did you do it? Have you had a few disastrous, unproductive moments of discussion? What went wrong? Please share your ideas in the comments below, and maybe we can figure this thing out together.

Happy Reading!