I place tremendous value on class discussions, where students voluntarily share ideas and talk directly to one another (with minimal involvement from me). Last semester, my students helped me find a system that worked nicely and the structure I describe here is inspired by them.
Each participant in class discussion should prepare before class by reading thoughtfully and selecting something specific they want to bring into the discussion.
- Before the start of class, I’ll ask each of you to begin a new blog post in OpenLab with the passage you want to bring into discussion, the source of the passage, and one or two sentences about what you want to say about it. You can certainly bring more into the discussion than this, but these are the basics to receive credit for being prepared for class. I’ll be able to see it whether you save it as a draft or set it to private.
- After I take attendance, I’ll mark who has drafted a post and who has not—this will be how I track completion (zero points for no draft post, 10 points for draft post).
- All devices will go away and notebooks will come out for discussion. Our note-taker for the day will try to capture the conversation as it unfolds and I’ll do the same.
- I will do my best on the class computer to pull up texts, passages, and random things that come up as the discussion happens.
- After discussion, I’ll set aside some time for you to open your draft post and complete it by writing what you took away from the discussion, whether you shared your selected passage or not. Your goal is to write quickly and informally to capture emerging ideas. By the end of the allotted time, I will ask you to publish your post or keep it private (I’ll be able to see it either way).
- Right after class, I’ll mark who has completed their post and who has not—this will be how I track participation (zero points for no completed post, 10 points for a completed post).
I’m likely to tweak things as I see how this system is working—please share ideas if you see ways to improve discussion!
