Discussions

I'm in a new placement this semester so I haven't seen too many discussions within the classroom. I'm in a Montessori classroom of 1st-3rd grade and one discussion I had seen was of individual students present a project they did over break. After everyone presented, the teacher had them ask questions to the presenter. After awhile, I realized that the same questions were being asked to the presenter, such as, "Why did you chose that state to research?" and "How did you come up with your idea?" After someone asked a question, no one build off of the comments made.


After reading the Almasi article, I realized that a good discussion can benefit students across several domains, such as cognitive, social-emotional, and affective. Looking back on the presentations taking place, it was very useful that the teacher would try to have to students stay on topic and encouraged them to ask new questions, which she modeled. Yet, there wasn't exact interaction that was described in the article. I remember being in elementary school and never really having a classroom discussion. I remember the teacher always talking, and basically doing a traditional type of discussions, which was described in the article. Although I find it beneficial for the teacher to reflect on student's responses, but it's also very important to allow the children to do most of the talking since it will benefit them in several ways.


In my classroom, all the students feel very comfortable with one another, which is great for leading into discussion. Yet, I feel there definitely needs to be some more scaffolding, and having the students really reflect on others thoughts and come to their own meanings of the conversation or of a text. I feel if different types of discussion activities were used, it may be easier to build it up for the students to participate in a large classroom discussion. For example, if the students start out in small groups and have a topic to discuss, each group would get a Popsicle stick. The student with the stick is the only one that can talk and share their ideas. The stick gets passed around and once everyone had a chance to say something, then they may start with anyone talking. That way, it allows those students who are more shy and may not speak up right away, get a chance to have their thoughts be heard. This is a great way for those students build up their self-esteem and get used to speaking in front of others. Gradually, I think a large group discussion will happen naturally and successfully.