This post is dedicated to Terry Falsani, who taught at Marshall from 1993 to 2001
Discussion
is a skill, just like reading or writing, and as such, it needs to be taught. Too
often, I think, teachers assume that students naturally know how to participate
in discussions, but there’s nothing natural about academic discussions, especially
those based on texts.
Most
students haven't had the chance to witness many intellectual conversations in
their short lives. The world-at-large certainly doesn't provide them with many
models to imitate when it comes to civil conversations, based on critical thinking.
When I
was in high school, I was the shy girl who never talked. No one ever
taught me how to participate in class. In fact, I never found my voice until I
crossed the line from student-territory into teacher-space. And as
a teacher, I was in control: the class
was mine to create, and the conversations, mine to direct. That sense of
ownership was truly liberating; that feeling of control made it possible,
finally, for me to speak up and participate fully.
Our
students shouldn't have to become teachers (not literally, anyway) in order to
feel that same sense of liberation. We should help them find their voices and
become full participants in our classes, and we can do that by letting them play
a larger role in teaching themselves and each other.
* * *
In my
early days of teaching high school, I took on full responsibility for leading
all the discussions. I believed in the Socratic Method. I really thought that if I just
asked the right questions, in the right order, most of my students would
magically turn into great conversationalists and eventually come to the same
conclusions I had about the text or topic we were discussing. And that's what
was supposed to happen, right?
Time
and time again, however, that magic moment failed to materialize... Maybe I was
doing it wrong. (I'm sure I was!) Maybe I was worn out from following up every
student-answer with yet another question. Textbook examples
of Socratic discussions read like verbal tennis matches--with all
the students playing the
teacher, instead of each other.
--And
I mean "playing" in more than one sense. We ought to be a bit
suspicious of the Socratic Method. It's absolutely dependent on the Master
Teacher and his wicked backhand. It also requires that the students play along.
The Socratic style can easily devolve into a performance in which the teacher
is showing off and the students are sucking up to flattering the
teacher.
Nearly fifteen years ago, while dealing with a particularly taciturn group of students,
I found the Socratic Method failing me. I desperately sought the advice of a
wiser and more experienced colleague (the great Terry
Falsani). She introduced me to the concept of Student-Led
Discussions and shared her favorite technique with me. I adopted it
immediately, and it changed my teaching forever. I haven't led a discussion
since then.
* * *
Since
those early days, I've come to question all my initial assumptions about what
class discussions should look and sound like. I now believe that everybody
should participate; no one should be allowed to just sit back and listen. I no
longer think I should try to get my students to see the text exactly as
I do. Granted, that’s very hard for me, especially when I'm teaching my
favorite novels--as my AP Lit students can verify! I still try to shove
nudge them in the right my favorite direction. After all, I have some
good ideas, and it's my job to pass those ideas on, isn't it?
Well,
yes and no. There are lots of ways to pass ideas on without lecturing or
dominating class discussion. In a future post, I'll explain how teachers can use indirect direct instruction to help their students frame discussions, so that lots of good
ideas get into the mix. But for now, my point is that the teacher's ego is the
biggest obstacle on the path to student-centered teaching. (I should know: mine gets in the way all the time.)
We
teachers love the sounds of our own voices. But perhaps the more we talk, the
less we actually teach... Our silence might serve our students better. If
we talk a bit less, they might stop craving our approval, as they so
desperately do, and start thinking, really thinking. In the midst of our silence,
they can discover ideas for themselves, ideas they can truly own.
These
days, I no longer think that I should be at the center of the conversation, controlling its direction. I no longer need that sense of ownership. After all, I found my voice long ago. I can afford to give my students my silence, and on our best days, they learn to talk to, and think with, each
other while I am on the sidelines, intensely alert, agonizingly hopeful, and almost completely silent. (Although I'm silent, I'm also very busy: I'm taking notes, assessing student performance, and planning, in response to what I hear, pre- and post-discussion assessments that will help frame future conversations.)
* * *
Are
Student-Led Discussion techniques really necessary to teach conversational
skills? I think so. With teacher-centered methods, old Socrates owns the
discussion, and nobody gets anywhere unless he drives the bus
toward Truth and Enlightenment...
As long as the
teacher is responsible for sustaining the conversation and for maintaining its
quality, the students are just along for the ride, with no real reason to care. It's not their bus, they're
not driving it, and they don't really
know where they're going.
Student-Led
Discussion techniques make the students responsible for keeping the
conversation going, and, better yet, they can also make the students responsible
for quality-control. Such discussions put the students in the driver's seat;
together, they map out their journey and decide on their destination.
We've got to get
our students talking to each other, instead of just talking to us,
seeking our approval as they do so. We've got to get them questioning each
other, rather than waiting for us to lob the next question at them. We have
to let them start driving this bus.
Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below!
Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below!
