Week 2 Response

I'm sorry this has taken so long for me to post! Blogger wouldn't let me post this because it said my html was wrong and my connection kept being interrupted! I've been trying to get this thing on here since Monday night!!!

Prior to reading these four course pack articles and Weinstein/Migano chapter, I would have never guessed there were that many ways to discuss discussion and recitation within an elementary classroom setting. I was definitely surprised to see all of the pieces centering around those topics.
Throughout all of the articles a common understanding is the fact that as humans, regardless of our age, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status or what have you, are influenced by others. For this reason, recitation and discussions can be very beneficial. However, in recitation, only the teacher influences the class. Within a discussion, both teacher and students are allowed to contribute, therefore influencing the surrounding classroom.
Due to the student’s ability to become involved in a discussion, I find this mode of communication to be more beneficial for the students. They are able to express their opinions and as many of the article stated, change the minds/contribute to their peers interpretations. Also, as page 33 of the CP states in the article, A New View of Discussion, “Traditional discussions consist of repetitive chains of this nature providing little opportunity for students to interact with one another”. Students should be able to use each other as resources as each and every one of them will likely have someone special/unique to contribute. Every student is different and makes up a unique classroom environment; therefore, every student’s differences create classroom uniqueness which will ultimately lead to special discussions throughout the numerous classrooms. (No student is the same, no classroom can be the same and therefore no discussion will be the same).
While it is important for teachers to scaffold the discussions, they should not be the dominant role player. The teacher should do as A New View of Discussion states on page 41 of the CP and create a discussion that will guide the student’s to have “richer understandings and interpretations” of the story/topic. The teacher should also establish a comfortable classroom environment where students feel comfortable participating and sharing ideas. Some of these procedures are discussed on page 325 in the Elementary Classroom Management text. To sum them up would be to ensure the students are respectful and attentive of other student’s opinions, be able to politely support, defend or question opinions and participate without taking over the discussion.
There were countless other portions of these pieces that I highlighted, stared and noted upon but these past issues were ones that I found to be some of the most important. However, in addition to the many ideas concerning discussions and recitation, I found the Elementary Classroom Management chapter to provide a number of general classroom tips such as the concept of a steering group (320-21), the action zone phenomenon (313), Pick Me sticks (310) and writing down questions to come back to on the board (307) among many others.
As a final food for thought, if you will, I found an interesting tie from the past article dealing with the ‘Parent Assignment’ to the ECM chapter. On page 311, the teacher states that she prefers to select certain students for certain questions. This is very much like that article because as teachers, both use a student’s prior knowledge/experiences to foster particular discussion. These articles further stress the importance of getting to know your students. Not only does it help build better bonds/classroom community, it can also aid in discussion and help with smoother pacing as teachers won’t have to deliberate over who to call on because they already know which students could provide useful/unique information.