January 30, 2017
What's Up in the Tech World
Importance of Discussion
The schedule is a bit crazy this week but I hope to be at Lower Campus Tuesday beginning about lunch and Wednesday in the morning (not sure about after lunch yet). I will be at Upper my normal days plus Tuesday morning.
“When I engage in dialogue, I recognize that those I speak with are equal to me, and I work from the assumption that they hold within them wisdom, knowledge, ideas, and gifts.” - taken from Unmistakable Impact by John Knight
The article goes on to say, "The act of telling or explaining what they know cements students’ understanding of concepts. Conversely, struggling students benefit from hearing their peers’ ideas, opinions, and explanations. Even the opportunity to ask questions can help students to begin to deconstruct challenging ideas or concepts." You can read the entire article here.
It is so important to give our students an opportunity to "tell us" what they know or don't know. Is it right to wait until that big summative assessment for this information? How will they really learn if they have one opportunity to tell us what they know and then we move on?
There are many ways you can facilitate on online discussion. This can be beneficial to those quiet students who don't speak up in class. Schoology offers free teacher accounts that will allow you to set up an online class space with discussion boards. The free account has some limitations but works well. Google Classroom can be used for discussion. I am here to help if this is something you are interested in. You can use the Recap app or Flipgrid (there is a link included below) and allow students to record a short response to a question.
Please consider how you are providing the opportunity for your students to discuss their learning. I know class time can be so limited and discussions take time. I have given you some options for using time away from class. Please let me know if I can help.
Knight, Jim. Unmistakable Impact: A Partnership Approach for Dramatically Improving Instruction. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin Press, 2011. Internet resource.