Discussion As A Way Of Thinking

After reading Stephen Brookfield’s Discussion As A Way Of Teaching, I gained great insight of how to effectively use discussions in my future classroom. The Circle of voices discussion technique really intrigued me. I like this technique because it always students of all personalities the chance to voice their opinion without being put on the spot. This concept also allows students to think inside the minds of their classmates. In the lager discussion, students are encouraged not to elaborate about their own ideas but on something they thought was important explained by their peer in the circle of 5. I had never heard of conversational roles until reading this document. I thought that this would be a great idea to use in my future classroom. I think it is a great way to get all students involved and allows them to focus on one task at hand. This also allows each student to actively listen and learn from their classmates who a assigned a different role for the discussion. Because I have always been the student who does not care to share my thoughts frequently, I thought the hatful of quotes is a great idea.  Each student is expected to share their thoughts but this activity is designed to be stress free and allows students to share at their leisure.  The speech policy was probably my favorite thing I took from this document. I actually think it would be awesome to make a copy of the teacher’s statement and hang it in my classroom. I believe if a student wants to share their thoughts with the entire group that is wonderful and I would commend them for doing so. On the other hand, I was the student who would get anxiety knowing I had to share my thoughts or give a speech. As a teacher I want my students to feel confident enough to share their thoughts and if they aren’t I want them to know that I do not judge or grade them for not sharing.