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Favorite Discussion Tools

1) What questions do you have?
The typical way of gauging whether your students are still with you, and prepared to move forward, is to ask "Any questions?" That's a yes or no question and in many cases students will simply answer 'no' to themselves and otherwise sit there silently. Instead, try "What questions do you have?" It presumes that students do have questions and puts the impetus on the students to identify the questions they actually have.
2) Silence
The goal of the classroom experience is to engage students intellectually. If you're giving students something to think about, they're going to need time to think about it, too. Silence feels very awkward to the person standing up front but it's often barely noticed by the audience, especially if the silence is preceded by something worth thinking about. So after you make a point, take a long pause. If you ask students what questions they have, take a long pause to let them identify their questions. Push yourself to take more and longer pauses. Drink some water, walk across the room, check your notes, whatever it takes to introduce some silence into the room to let students think.
3) "What do you want to comment on, critique, or ask a question about?"
Once each week, I take a seat amongst the students and I ask this question. I then pick a point in the room to begin. I might say, "We're starting with Christy and then moving to her left." Students are allowed to respond to each other's comments, but they are not required to do so. This accomplishes several things. First, it reduces my voice in the classroom and actually takes some pressure off of me to have a detailed lesson plan for that day. Second, it amplifies student voices and reveals to me what it is that they are getting from the readings--as opposed to just confirming whether they are getting the things that I want to focus on. Third, it teaches me new things about the readings and about student experiences because they often pick up on something that I would overlook. In a class of 30 students, I rarely get through more than 10 in 50 minutes. Usually the first few comments go without much reply, but then students relax and a conversation develops. Here's the thing: as the teacher, you have to let go of the belief that you have to respond to every student comment. It's fine to simply say "thank you, next" or to sit silently and see what happens.
4. "Go!"
If you give students something to do in class, it is surprisingly helpful to also tell them to start. For instance, if I ask students to find a partner and discuss some basic questions about the text, they tend to sit there looking confused for a bit. If I say "Go!" with an authoritative voice, they start moving.
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