CHAPTORAMA!!!

Chapter 5
I definitely have nothing bad to say about chapter five in “Talking in Class.” I had a couple of teachers who taught in similar ways when I was in high school. At the same time, I also had classes where the teachers were so desperate to get discussion going that they would give treats to people who spoke up or made a good point. If your students are only talking because they want a piece of candy I think that’s kind of sad.
The only thing I could add is that the seating arrangement of your classroom can also be an important tool for discussion. Much like the Socratic seminars we have in class some of my experiences have seen some other interesting choices. My 11th grade literature teacher had the class split down the middle with each side facing each other. Instead of all facing the front towards the teacher’s desk, the students are facing each other and actively engaging in debates. Circling the desks also works well as we do in class, but there are options for how to organize your classroom to encourage discussion not just with the teacher but with each other even if you don’t put them into small groups first.

Chapter 6
I feel like I read this chapter before. I imagine it’s because we’ve been discussing this kind of teaching and learning all semester so far. Maybe it’s just me, but the hero example and the case study one just remind me of things we’ve done in class already and I’ve already given my opinion about these types of activities. Anyways, I enjoy these preparations and think they are a useful tool in the classroom to help get kids thinking before they even read the text. I especially like the oppinionaire and case study examples for their simplicity in just asking the students their own views on the ideas presented, yet they get such interesting responses.
I would steer clear of the writing about personal experiences portion. From my own personal experience, this can be a very hard activity for some students. It was always a difficult assignment for me in high school and I wouldn’t want to put my students through that. Some pretty painful events can come up depending on what the subject matter is and teachers should tread lightly in this territory.

Chapter 15
I’ll admit, I only skimmed through this chapter because I worked late and woke up early to read and write this. Anyways, excuses aside, I liked what I saw. There were definitely some ideas that were new to me in this chapter. Of particular note, I thought that the silent discussion was a very interesting idea. It allows for active discussion and the shyer to speak kids in your class can be just as involved as your kids who talk incessantly. This would be a nice change up to use every now and then (not something to be used all the time) that would keep things interesting.
I can’t say I’m a big fan of all the self evaluating stuff I’ve been seeing in these chapters, especially in this one. I think it’s just me because it didn’t do anything for me when I was in school and I just never understood the purpose of it. I guess if you have a classroom full of really honest kids and you find it to serve some purpose I’m not seeing than kudos, but I couldn’t see myself using this technique.

Chapter 10 - Get Organizized!

While I agree that reading and discussion can generate some great ideas for students, it doesn’t appear that organization skills are ever discussed in this chapter. I don’t know if the book simply assumes that students already know these things by the time we get to them, but I’ve always found organization to be one of the most important fundamentals of writing strong papers. The structure of a paper is really the skeleton of you work. The ideas and evidence and the meaty part of the paper, but what the chapter seems to be saying to me is that they want the kids to find their own way. Students should definitely have their own writing style, but it’s tricky because they should also know what is expected of them and what their teacher holds to be a good solid paper.
I’m not saying this chapter didn’t have its good points. I actually enjoyed it. It just seems like there should have been some emphasis put on organizational skills. I really like the discussion prompts because the ideas are so juicy and full of questions for young minds. The right to kill, the death sentence, crime problems, the right to your own lifestyle, and other ideas were brought up here and I think any of them would be fitting for a classroom and many great papers could come out of those few little articles.
Teachers should let students know their standards, show them some basic organizational skills for putting a paper together and then get into the meatier stuff like real world concepts and moral conundrums.