The readings for this week reminded me a lot of our TE 401 Science course and all of the work we did with inquiry based instruction. The best inquiry based instruction is when the students have complete control of the questioning and direction of their learning. This is the same idea that is behind the student directed discussions written about and supported by Almasi, McGee, Langer, and Goldeberg.
Almasi writes about "recitation" discussions where "there is no collaborative attempt to construct meaning; the answers are already known." (p. 34) This type of discussion is completely teacher driven with the students responding with either correct or incorrect answers. This is the type of discussion that Almasi wants teachers to move away from and try to avoid. Rather Almasi wants teachers to lead discussions that are "interactive events in which individuals collaboratively construct meaning or consider alternate interpretations of the text in order to arrive at new understandings." (p. 31) Basically, Almasi favors discussions where the students take control of the talking and explore the material together. McGee builds on this idea when talking about how in good discussions "children set the agenda for discussion; their comments initiate topics of discussion." (p. 59)
In my field time I have not seen what the authors would consider true student driven discussions. This is because I am in a kindergarten class and the students aren't capable of carrying on their own discussion about a subject. The classroom talks that I have seen are completely teacher driven with my CT asking the questions and guiding the lesson. She doesn't allow any of the students to be shy and not participate in the lesson or discussion. To do this my CT simply calls on each student multiple times every day and does not continue with her lesson until she hears a response. The students aren't directing the discussion, but everyone is involved. These students are at the very beginning of their schooling career and are learning so many new things that it would be a bit presumptuous to think that they could carry on a thoughtful discussion with little help from the teacher. My CT is trying to get her students to that point by teaching them how to participate in school and try to be active learners.
Even though I haven't seen a real student driven discussion in my field work, I do believe that this is an effective technique for teaching language arts. This is something that I as a teacher hope to be able to use with my students. I understand that this will not be easy to do and will require lots of preparation and practice. However, I like the idea behind these types of discussions where the students are taking control of their learning and coming to an understanding of the material by working together.
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I think that it is interesting to see the students interacting in their own versions of discussions in our classrooms. You bring up the point of your CT trying to get them to be active learners and have thoughtful discussion... but I wonder at what point this is possible. The students in my classroom still become extremely off tangent when we have any sort of discussion regarding anything. They are always wanting to include themselves in the discussion and talk about all of the things that they feel tie into what is being talked about that an actual discussion is hard to have at this level. I wonder what your opinion is on this--for Kindergarteners. I see that you hope to be able to get your students to discuss things effectively, but how would you do it in this case? These are issues we're going to be struggling with. I researched this last semester and still am not sure how to get it done effectively. Or, I wonder, is it OK to let them sort of get off track for a minute? At what point do you draw back into the main topic? I have all these questions and so few answers. Maybe that is a theme about teaching.
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