Learning by Discussing

Facilitator: Maria Ebner, Graduate Teaching Fellow

Session 1, 1:00-2:15

Register for this session here!

Effective discussions can provoke profound learning, yet they are particularly challenging to create and sustain. This workshop will pursue strategies for getting discussion going and for keeping it lively.   

Questions I would like to discuss with you include:

• How can I ask good questions? 
• How can I respond to students in a way that encourages their further discussion?
• How can I encourage students to share diverse viewpoints with both respect and candor?
• What can I do if discussion seems to fall flat or fall apart?
• What can I do about students who dominate or withdraw from discussion?

What are some ideas or suggestions you have on this topic?

Video clip from “Donnie Darko” – what a discussion!

“I just DON’T see the point of crying over a dead rabbit!!”

Aside from Drew Barrymore’s Hollywoodesque portrayal of an obvioulsy depressed teacher of the 80s, the reaction of a frustrated student to a piece of literature – as portrayed in the video below - may even happen to the best of us. But would that be a bad thing?

I picked this clip from the movie Donnie Darko because it not only shows how Hollywood portrays a classroom discussion gone wild, but how the discussion of this scene on Youtube has evolved into an ongoing back and forth of 646 comments and counting over this particular clip. Here are some samples of the comments:

bitchinbubbles (1 month ago) I disagree with donnie’s viewpoint, it’s very close minded and based on alot of assumptions, like that we are ‘more evolved’ or ‘more important’, when these very notions are human thought processes and are perhaps less evolved that we even consider ourselves not on the same playing field as other sentient beings.

THEGOBSHITEcom (1 month ago) I too disagree: for different reasons. The author wasn’t talking about rabbits in the literal sense. He used rabbits to convey a story. You’re right, it’s very close minded. Not because rabbits could be on a different level than one perceives, having cognitive thought process, or such, but that they are just humans told through metaphoric externals and atmosphere. In any case, I think I’m an idiot for putting so much thought into what Donnie thought of a book I’ve never read. Still, great scene.

OLDSKOOLcje (1 month ago)  This movie is based on something that happened in a town close to where i live

 
Discussions are part of everyone’s life and a deeply embedded part of the online community of today’s world. How can we learn with them to lead discussions in an engaging and collaborative way in our classrooms?

Please share some of your ideas or thoughts with me on this topic below.

Click here to see all the youtube comments!