Picture This

Picture This

Picture this: you are trying to hold a class discussion, You're writing like mad on the chalkboard; you have some great questions, ones you've picked especially for discussion purposes; and you've even brought in the overhead projector. And yet they are sitting there like stones. One in the back row is snoring and two in the front are doodling on your handout. This is not how you pictured it when you were planning it. You pictured everyone eager to say something. They disagree with one another, but politely and elegantly. Everyone has something to say and everyone lets them.

Teachers are often discouraged and frustrated with class discussions, I know I often have been. Either they don't say a word or they all talk at once, rudely interrupting one another. I have often walked out after class feeling like I had utterly failed. Yet, I press ahead with them. Why? Are they appreciating them? Are they learning how to write better? Why should I commit class time to something that could so easily go wrong? Why not just lecture, or just write or just discuss in small groups? Because I honestly feel that class discussions are important in not only learning, but in learning to write.

In the course of this class, we have discussed the differences between spoken and written language. And it has been generally agreed upon that spoken language is easier than written language. Yet, we seem to have agreed that it is necessary to have a strong grasp of spoken language before learning to write. This is the natural progression for children. They learn to talk first and then we move on to teaching them how to write. Keep this idea in mind. And I agree that spoken language is easier, in a conversational manner. We speak to our ...

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...o write at the college level; we are teaching them to discuss at the college level.

Works Cited

Christensen, C. "The Discussion Teacher in Action: Questioning, Listening and Responding." In C. Christensen, D. Garvin, and A. Sweet(eds), Education for Judgement. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1991.

Eble, Kenneth. The Craft of Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1988.

Erickson, Bette LaSere and Strommer, Diane Weltner. Teaching College Freshman. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1991.

Knoblauch, C. and Brannon, L. Rhetorical Traditions and the Teaching of Writing. Monteclair: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1984.

Sumner, David. "Starting the Conversation: The Importance of a Rhetoric of Assent When Teaching Argument." In T. Good and L. Warshauer(eds), In Our Own Voice: Graduate Students Teach Writing. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000.