Reflection on Discussion Type in my Placement

In my placement this semester the students – overwhelmingly – participate in “recitation” talk. During discussions, the teacher asks simple follow up questions such as, “Where did ____ go? What did ____ say?” Although this is discouraging, I understand my CT’s reasoning; her classroom has students reading at the first grade level up to the seventh grade level. When she reads to the whole group, she asks questions like this so that all the students can participate.

However, after reading the articles this week, I think it would be beneficial for her to have small group discussions and maybe mix up the students by reading level. This would allow the higher readers to act as mentors and the lower readers to experience guidance from their peers. Furthermore, as Almasi discussed, participating in reading discussions can contribute to the students’ cognitive, social, and affective development.

At this point in the year, I think a lot of scaffolding has to take place in order for the students to participate in a productive small group discussion. The best way to do this would be to model a small group discussion in front of the rest of the class, perhaps a fishbowl discussion? This way all students would participate in the small group discussion and be able to observe when not participating. Furthermore, the teacher would be able to guide and model the students during the first few discussions.

A few students in my classroom will need scaffolding in several ways. First, some of the students have taken on “bully” roles and will need to be reminded everyone’s opinion is important and valid. A few of the other students are quite shy and hesitant to participate (may be connected to the bullies in the class). These students would benefit from being encouraged to participate by their teacher as well as their peers.

As a write this blog, I am thinking that it would be exciting to do a fishbowl in my classroom. I think that the students in my placement would be extremely successful in this type of discussion and would be excited because it is completely out of their normal literary experiences. Lastly, the fishbowl discussion would be an “introduction” to small group discussions that the students may be able to participate in later on in the year.