Response to Discussion in a Democratic Society

This weekend's reading gave me a lot of insight to classroom discussions that I didn't know were factors of a good discussion. For one, I did not know about the term democratic discussion. This type of discussion is what teachers should strive for to have in their classrooms because all discussion participants will have the opportunity to share their strong views and devote their attention to their peer's words. At first it didn't seem like democratic and discussion go together, but the article makes the good point that those two terms are inseparable because they both strive to nurture and promote human growth. I think that democratic discussion is a great discussion strategy because with collaboration, students will be exposed to different points of view than they normally would have, thus employing human growth. Discussions are also great because they allow students to reach a more informed understanding of a topic, enhance student's self-awareness, foster appreciation for diverse opinions, and they help take informed action about the world. When first getting to this portion of the article, I thought to myself, well of course this is what discussions should do for students, but then as I continued to read on, I realized that a lot of discussions in the secondary classroom are guided by the teacher. A guided discussion is where the teacher asks questions and points of topics that the students start discussing, instead of starting with a topic that is brought up, and a discussion follows based on the students opinions, insights, and experiences. It is true however, that teachers will have to ask follow up questions and point out ideas of interest when the discussion begins to slow down. This is okay as long as the teacher does not take over with questions and control the flow of the discussion. A discussion is best run when students share their ideas and experiences because then the students are learning from one another, and expanding their world view through each other's experiences.

Because of this information, I looked back at my experiences as a student with discussion, and as far as I can remember, I did not participate in a democratic discussion except for my college Harry Potter literature course. I think that every class meeting, we had democratic discussions because the teacher would ask what stuck out to each of us through out the novel, and what were interesting thoughts we wrote about in our reading responses. Based on our answers, she would write a list of topics on the board, and say okay, someone pick one and start a discussion. Because we are college students, we did not have a problem starting the discussion ourselves, but other times, the professor would start with a topic she thought was important and have us discuss it. My Harry Potter class was always democratic discussion because the teacher was an active listener and student. She did not guide the discussion or overthrow someone's ideas. Instead she acted as a student, shared her experiences, and commemorated the students experiences/ideas. She did have to ask follow up questions, but she never guided the discussion for us. Since I was able to experience this type of discussion, I was able to conclude that my high school discussions were not democratic. They  had democratic intentions, but more often than not the teacher would guide the discussion. I think it is easier to guide a discussion in high school because the students are more self-conscious, and may not have a big world view, but it is still possible. Teachers should not give up and guide a discussion to force communication. With practice, any classroom can run a democratic discussion.

Introductory Letter Assignment

My name is Hollie Clouse. This is my senior year in college and my second quarter doing my observation hours. In the spring, I will be doing my full time student teaching. My experience so far as a teacher candidate has been more amazing than I thought it would be. I am learning so much from the methods courses! So far, English 408 has been my favorite course in the education program with Education 309 in second place. I have loved these two classes the most because they have given me the most insight for the role a teacher should play in the classroom. To often, teachers are a sage on the stage where they facilitate information to their students, but the students rarely get to do work where they can apply the knowledge they are suppose to have acquired. 408 and 309 have given me a better picture on how to not be a sage on the stage. From 309, I have learned that to have a functional and manageable classroom, the teacher needs to be able to foster relationships with his/her students. A relationship is the key to everything. With a good relationship between students and the teacher, the classroom will run more smoothly, students will be more engaged in the discussions, and it will be easier to solve problems when they occur. I also learned to believe with my whole heart that any student is capable of learning and doing great things, and it is critical for the teacher to prove to the students that they can do great things. One of the greatest moments in my life was when my 11th grade English teacher told me that I was very insightful and good with literature. This is one of the greatest moments in my life because my teacher told me I had potential and I was really good at something. I had never been told that before, and because of my teacher, I chose to enter the teaching field. I want to be the teacher that changes a student's life and shows him/her that he/she is capable of wonderful things, and can do anything he sets his mind to. In 408, I learned to love writing! It's a weird concept to be a potential English teacher and not enjoy writing. However, at the end of this course, I loved writing and became extremely exciting to be a teacher of writing. I learned to appreciate the outlets that writing can provide, and I want to show my students what a wonderful thing writing can be. Writing is a wonderful way for someone to open their eyes to themselves and the world around them.

So far, I think my greatest weakness as a teacher candidate is coming up with creative and unique lesson plans that engage the students and provide a meaningful way to apply knowledge. I think this is a common feeling among beginning teachers, but sometimes I catch myself thinking that I might not be a creative person in general. I know this is foolish thinking and eventually I will prove to myself that I am creative, but at the moment I feel self-conscious and constantly compare my ideas with those of my peers. I expressed this concern with my cooperating teacher, and she told me that every beginning teacher feels that way. She told me that for my first year and maybe my second, I will beg, borrow, and steal ideas from other teachers, just so I don't drown. Then after my first two years, I will have a good idea of how to handle a classroom and present material, and I will be start applying my own personal touches to a lesson plan. My cooperating teacher is truly amazing! She has been giving my copies of every little handout she has so that I can keep them and reuse them whenever I am required to teach this material. She is amazing because she is looking out for me. She remembers her beginning years as a teacher, and she wants to help me succeed as much as she can. I thank her tremendously for that. On a more positive note, I think one of my biggest strengths as a potential teacher is my love of learning. I know that sounds like something I am suppose to say as a future teacher, but I truly love learning! I think this is a strength because with my enthusiasm for learning, I will be able to express this with my students, and make it daily part of my classroom. My students will always know I am committed to them because knowledge and learning is power! Even if I cannot convince all of my students to love school, I hope to be able to help them love learning. Learning any piece of new information is a great feeling, and I want my students to learn to be active learners in any specialty field. I also think this a strength for me because I will always be learning knew information for myself and thinking of ways to incorporate that knowledge into my lessons.

Finally, my goals for this course are to be able to have a book, and think of a multitude of lessons for my students. I have this goal in mind because it will help me get over my weakness of designing lesson plans. I want to be able to think of lessons without help. I worry that I won't be able to do this by myself, but I want to learn how. Also, as my minor is ESL, I would like to have new ideas for how to make texts comprehensible to my ELL's. This quarter, I am completing my last class for my minor, and I am required to do a project where I research any part of ESL that I want to learn more about. Because of this project, I would like to apply my knowledge from 493 to my ESL class, and make my project about how to make texts comprehensible to ELL's. This project will be great for me because I want my first teaching job to be over seas teaching English and I want to learn as many methods as I can.