Discussion - More Important the Older They Get

     This week in class we have been discussing the importance of Discussion.  I was shocked to hear the statics that say fewer than 1 in 40 middle school classrooms use discussion as a form of learning.  I was so surprised to hear this because when I think back to my middle school (and high school) experience my teachers often used this tool as an exchange of ideas.  I always preferred this method of teaching to simply being handed a worksheet where I was asked to summarize what I read.  Discussion forces students to look at the text in different ways.  No two students will glean the same information and reactions from the text. 
     There are of course some problems that arise in group discussions.  For an efficient and productive discussion all the participants have to have prepared and thought about the text beforehand.  Some ways to avoid unprepared students is to require an entry ticket - a paper or short paragraph about the reading showing that students were ready to discuss.  There also is the problem that some students do not like to talk in large groups.  Some ways to deal with this is to require student to participate in some form.  But also smaller group discussion can take the pressure off of these students.
     My ideal classroom environment would foster discussions in which all students were invited as well as eager to participate.   Students would form a circle and exchange their ideas about what the text was about, their feelings on the topics and what the reading meant to them.  I think that every student should have the opportunity to experience these types of discussion and look forward to trying this strategy in my future classroom.