Ooooh... some new discussion ideas here!

I have witnessed first-hand the power of student-centered discussion in the classroom. Kids are interested... or at least more interested... and I feel like I'm actually able to get an accurate pulse of the kids' thinking.

If you're a teacher and have held discussions in the classroom, you've probably considered a few of these questions:

• how many students are going to be involved in the discussion?
• how long do I expect the students to hold the discussion?
• what are the students going to discuss?
• what will the students who are not involved in the discussion be doing?
• how involved should I be as a teacher?
• and... the list goes on

Ariel Sacks provides some refreshing strategies to use in her book Whole Novels for the Class, and I'm going to share a few here that I especially liked. 

Saving it for the end

A major premise of Sacks' whole-novel approach is saving discussion until her students have finished reading the novel. She then facilitates a week's worth of discussion, dividing her class into two groups and allotting two-and-a-half class periods for discussion for each group. Yep, a whole week of discussion! If you're like me, you'll appreciate the stages of discussion she provides in helping teachers better envision how three days of discussion unfolds. 

Table 4.1 Stages of Discussion (Sacks 111)

• Day 1
• Focus: Students share their gut reactions to the book, opinions about characters, and favorite, confusing, and/or controversial parts. 
• Skills Practiced: Authentic response to literature; questioning; connecting; inference; voicing opinions; respecting differing opinions; turn taking
• Day 2
• Focus: Students delve deeper into questions that emerged from the first session by looking for evidence in the book, rereading sections together, discussing further and asking new questions
• Skills Practiced: Rereading; supporting ideas with evidence; challenging or revising ideas with evidence; close reading of the text; analyzing language; application of literary terms
• Day 3: 
• Focus: Students take a step back from the story and consider the role of the author in creating the novel; assess the strengths and limitations of the author's craft; and discuss the novel in the context of the world and other works of literature or film
• Skills Practiced: Drawing conclusions from evidence; analyzing the author's craft; inferring the author's purpose and intended audience; making connections across texts; connecting themes in the text to world issues; critical thinking

Transcribing the Discussion

In the past, I have separated my class into two groups and then paired my students. The partner in the inner circle participated in the discussion while the student in the outer circle typed the contributions his/her partner made to the discussion. This method provided me with an activity for students who were not participating in the discussion, and it also provided a way for all students to be involved in the discussion and noting the different thinking that arose from it. It also was an easy way to record the discussion so students could return to ideas that might aid them for a following writing assignment. I had a required format for students to use when typing their partner's comments, and I often used www.todaysmeet.com as the tool since Google Doc can become a headache when several people are trying to type at once. 

The problem? Students' typing skills often were inadequate, and students easily grew flustered, interrupting the natural flow of discussion by calling out, "Wait! Wait! Josh, what did you say?" In addition, punctuation and spelling were a challenge for some students, and todaysmeet doesn't allow a person to edit the writing once it has been posted. 

Sacks' recommends that the teacher types the transcript for the discussion. The students who are not participating in the discussion are often working on a creative writing assignment that ties into the novel that was read. Sacks prints the transcript and makes notes next to comments that could be discussed in more detail. She makes a copy, and this becomes the natural starting place to spark discussion. I love that she helps guide the discussion but that the power truly remains with the students.

Sacks includes several other worthwhile ideas for holding a student-centered discussion in the classroom that I won't address here in the blog. If interested, go check out a copy of her Whole Novels for the Whole Class.