It’s that time of year when many of us have looked at our student evaluations (or opinion surveys, as they’re now called), to see whether there are comments that might point to aspects regarding our teaching methods, syllabi construction, or course content that we would do best to revisit, revise, and improve. We certainly can’t please all students in our classes, no matter whether we choose to revise our techniques or ignore the students’ comments altogether; nor is “pleasing one’s students” always the primary aim of our courses. However, when I seem to do things right, and when I seem to have a high percentage of students who have truly appreciated my courses, I can point to one feature that seems to have a salutary effect on the students’ perceptions, and that is the aspect of class participation: namely, students feeling proud and accomplished about their contributions to class-wide discussions and their concomitant judgment (or opinion) that I’ve somehow helped them shine in this regard. Regardless of the failings or weak spots that my students may observe about my courses (and there are a few persistent ones despite my thirty-four years of teaching), I seem to have found a way to “do” discussions well. In the interest of sharing some tips with all of you, I’ve gleaned some techniques from my own classes over the years that may be useful for any one of us wanting to improve class discussions. Perhaps one or two of these might be blessed in standard accounts of “how to run a great class discussion,” and yet I’m certain many others that I’ve mentioned below would never make anyone’s top ten list of great discussion techniques. However, they’ve worked very well for me over the decades, they are tried and tested at least in my own classes, and I hope you’ll find them useful as well, for your upcoming semester.
Subjective-to-objective discussion
I teach a lot of literature from the Middle Ages, literature that is, for most students, simply alien. They have no idea what to make of it at first, so I allow my students to respond to the literature subjectively first – “I liked it; I didn’t like it; this confused me; this is weird” – and then I channel those gut responses into a discussion of the literary features of the readings for that day: plot, characterization, style, setting, symbols, themes. I even can branch out into important discussions about historical context. With this discussion technique, almost everyone has something to say; in addition, the students realize that their gut responses actually can be used to make sense of the work’s literary features, as well.
Three-at-a-time discussion
For classes that have several quiet students who would rather go to the dentist than contribute to a discussion, I will use a focused approach that allows me to go around the room and throw out a leading question to just three students at a time, usually those who are sitting next to each other. These three students are then allowed to run wild with that one question. When one of the three students responds, then this encourages the other two to contribute something new, or to reaffirm or disagree with that first student’s comment, and thus they model a civilized, three-way conversation for the rest of the students who are, by the way, listening carefully to the conversation and taking notes because they now realize that they also have something to say about this question. After these three students have exhausted their responses for that question, I open up the question to the entire class, and then the magic happens: many more students are now willing to contribute, and they want to add to the conversation and throw their ideas into the ring. I then move to the next three students, and we start all over again. A teacher can cover lots of ground this way, in addition to empowering the quieter students to contribute to a discussion that they normally would have avoided, otherwise.
An “anything-goes” conversation, but with limits
Sometimes students just want some free rein over their class participation. It might be a rainy day; students might be recovering from a difficult mid-terms week; or it might just be the case that the readings for that day are highly provocative. For a class period like that, I might simply say, “so, what do you think about this author, this text, this novel, this method of writing?” and then allow all students to say whatever comes to mind as I sit there quietly, letting this discussion unfold for ten minutes or so. As often as not, the students do not simply want to kvetch about the reading. They actually will have valid issues and concerns that they want to share with their classmates without any interference from me. In a free-flowing discussion like this, it’s a pleasure to see the students honing in on major aspects of the reading without my ever needing to cover a set of discussion questions. But the students are sometimes not aware that they are, indeed, hitting on major issues. So, after ten minutes, I start shaping the discussion along the lines of key issues and concerns that they, themselves, have raised at some point during their free-ranging discussion. I draw their attention to all that they have covered (and uncovered) in their discussion, and I let them know that they have offered interpretations of the readings that are worthwhile, interesting, and valid.
Teacher-as-note-taker
For this type of discussion, I will go to the whiteboard, marker in hand, and will ask each and every one of the students to come up with something, anything, that they want their classmates, and me, to cover in our discussion of a certain reading. These items can be major or minor, overt or subtle, but all students must ask me to write something on the board. As they do this task, the students start to see collections of ideas that belong together, or other ideas that warrant their own special time allotted for class discussion. And then, when the whiteboard is all filled up with wonderful discussion-worthy elements, I use the rest of the class period to have students interpret as many of these as we can, making sure that students are also finding page references that may help support their points of view. A student feels proud when other students discuss their whiteboard idea and when others devote good energy to unpacking that particular idea. And, as in the techniques above, a teacher can achieve nearly 100% participation that way.
Parlaying the “I don’t know” answer into something better
Nothing can stymie a class discussion more quickly than a student who looks down or away, or who finally says “I don’t know” to a leading question. For students who are simply unprepared, then there’s not much a teacher can do except raise the same question with another student who is willing to take on the challenge. But for students who are more or less prepared for the class but who just haven’t thought deeply enough about the question, or who are a little embarrassed at having to speak in front of the class, then I use these moments as opportunities to do one of two things: I can either rephrase the question in a way that the student understands, or I can say to the student, “well, then, give me an answer to a different question, or a related question.” And then, in most cases, a student will be delighted to contribute to the class discussion in a slightly different way from the one that was planned by me. Now, it’s true that some semi-unprepared students may get off the hook that way, but even so, the situation becomes a teachable moment for students, in that they all can see that even under some duress, they have something to say that furthers a class discussion.
The name-game
I’ll share one more technique, perhaps an obvious one, that seems to do wonders for me in even the most recalcitrant of classes. After two weeks of learning students’ names and learning where the students often sit, I’ll throw out some ideas and issues for discussion, making a mental note of the students who often wade into the fray first. Then, I can do a couple of things subsequently: I can either start calling on students from way across the room and ask them to respond to the more vocal students’ responses (a tactic which takes their focus off me and places it on a peer-led discussion instead); or when the discussion moves to a different topic, I can deliberately call on those more quiet students and can ask them to field the questions first, making sure that the more loquacious students are quiet and respectful while these more quiet students contribute something. When I’m convinced that nearly all students have made a serious attempt to further our class discussion, I then ask those students who haven’t said anything all class period to identify themselves. I may get two or three students raising their hands. I then turn over the remaining discussion to them, asking them to share an observation, any observation, about the readings before our class ends for the day. All of the students leave the classroom with a sense of fulfillment, even the ones who may have waited till the last minute to contribute. (I may, indeed, begin the next class discussion with those quiet students next time.) The students also begin to learn their classmates’ names that way, and later on, they can say, “I agree (or disagree) with what Jim (or Jane) said earlier,” which forces students to pay attention more closely to the person who is speaking or being referenced. Simple but effective.
I’m sure that many of you have your own successful ways to generate class discussion: e.g., preparing discussion questions ahead of time and having students study or answer some of them prior to class; having students generate their own topics or questions for discussion ahead of time; having students engage in blogs or short writing assignments ahead of time so as to focus their attention on key issues; small group work. There are many beneficial techniques that I haven’t had the time to touch upon, here. In addition, I have not addressed the issue of how credible the students’ contributions might be, whether the students are way off base or are just talking in class for the sake of talking, or whether they might unfortunately start to value the quantity over the quality of their participation. To address this issue briefly: in each of the methods I’ve discussed above, I’m often engaged in shaping, directing, reaffirming, framing, reframing, and summing up our class discussions to meet certain goals that I’ve set for myself to cover specific material, ideas, issues, and concerns for each of the readings I’ve assigned. I also do these things because I want to model critical reading skills. But in the end, I suppose my most important goal is to get my students talking, talking, and talking some more. In doing so, I’m rarely if ever disappointed by what my students have to say and am always pleased to see them taking cognizance of how they’ve supplied something important and relevant to our class community.
Wishing you a wonderful spring semester!