Ways to Encourage Discussion that Includes all the Students
I think of writing as frozen speech. The best writing expresses ideas that the writer wants passionately to say. This means the writer has to have ideas, which, in a composition class, grow out of specific reading and conversation. So students really need to be thinking and talking, debating and exploring while they are together in class. In a discussion class of 20 students, like my freshman composition courses, I have found a couple of ways to encourage discussion that includes all the students. Here are two simple ones:
1. duet presentations. Whenever we read an article from the essay textbook or chapter from a novel we're using in class (such as Charles Dickens's Great Expectations), I assign two students to "present" the reading to the class. I choose them randomly as soon as I receive the class lists; their names are on the syllabus from the beginning of the semester. Together -- and in conversation with me -- they decide what major points they want to make. Then they lead discussion for about 15 minutes. They might divide the class into discussion groups of two or three students who consider questions the leaders pose. Occasionally the leaders organize Jeopardy or other quiz games. They stage mock trials. They suggest quick in-class writings which students read. The student presenters encourage everyone to participate and they do.
2. I myself use all these techniques (well, not Jeopardy). Whatever the topic of discussion -- public issues to personal experiences -- I set up relevant hypotheticals or debates and number off the students who move their chairs around into small groups and talk for about ten minutes. After that time the areas of agreement/ disagreement are clear, and everyone has an opinion. They are well on their way to writing about the topic at hand.
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