Discussion and Reading Strategies

1. Discussion and Reading Strategies Gen. Ed. Literature Orientation Fall 2014

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhiCFdWeQfA

4. Thinking About Effective Discussion Strategies… • Recall a time when you were part of a class with great discussions • What is one thing you remember about that class? • How was that discussion facilitated?

5. Overview of Discussion Techniques • Prepare effective questions. Always have more questions ready than you think you’ll need to use for discussion. • Respond to students’ comments in the moment. Draw connections between students’ comments. • Bring the text into the discussion. Take time to read passages aloud and to have students read passages aloud. Refer to specific passages. Examine passages during discussion.

6. What do effective discussion questions look like? • Don’t be afraid to start with simple, content-based questions to get students talking • Progress to more complex or interpretative questions throughout a lesson • Include questions on specific passages and details from the text • Include questions on broad topics and themes in the text or across texts • Don’t be afraid to follow up on points that are raised with more questions, or to tackle questions raised by students

7. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Discussion Questions • Take a few minutes to quietly read through the handout

8. Small Groups / Full Group • Both forms of discussion are valuable • Small groups: get new students participating, allow for leadership opportunities, help students get to know each other • Full group: allows students to interact with you, allows you to guide the discussion and demonstrate good close reading strategies, allows you to keep students on-task and focused

9. Class Participation • How should you grade participation in class discussions? • The weight of class participation in your overall grade is up to you • Take good notes on your students’ class participation (in case students have questions, or a grade complaint) • You may want to send midterm participation grades to your students, so there are no surprises at the end of the semester

10. How will you facilitate discussion in your course? • In groups of 3, discuss: • What is your current plan for leading discussion? • Which of the strategies covered by the handouts OR another strategy are you most interested in trying out? • Select someone in your group to share your thoughts with the full group

11. Reading Strategies • Reading checks • It is important to hold students accountable for the reading and to encourage them to keep up to speed with the syllabus • Ways to do this include, but are not limited to: daily reading checks, warm up question, ICON discussion question, index card writing, periodic reading quizzes • Close readings in class • This will be covered in detail elsewhere in the orientation • Remember: you are modeling good reading strategies for your students when you lead a close reading or read a passage aloud in the classroom • Making sure your students have their books out and are on the relevant page is key • Including time in a discussion to read passages aloud helps students work on close reading • Ask students to support their answers to discussion questions with evidence from the text

12. Marginalia • It’s great to find ways to get your students to mark up their texts as they read—often an early-in-the-semester assignment looking at marginalia can help achieve this • Discuss value and purpose of annotation • Students may also take notes on stickies or separate paper • Many of the Anthologies include lessons on taking effective notes while reading and marking up a text

13. Critical Approaches • Encourage students to explore the perspectives they bring to the text • Encourage wide range of perspectives • Critical Approaches • Critical Theories can be presented in relevant and approachable ways • Goal: understanding multiple perspectives, giving students a language to discuss • Bring in samples of critical articles (excerpts work nicely) to pair with readings • Key take aways: approachable, relevant, purposeful

14. Reflect on your classroom plan • How do you plan to encourage note-taking or writing marginalia in your class? • How will you develop a culture of close reading in your classroom?