Speak To Me...

I want them to talk more. I really want them to enjoy discussing academic stuff out loud. So I did this thing...


1) Students recieve chapter of dry, dull textbook (actually really cool, interesting textbook, but there's no accounting for tastes).

2) I instruct them to read in pairs and discuss what the chapter tells them about today's key terms (In this instance - The Standards Debate; Descriptivism; Prescriptivism)

2a) Today's Key Terms are, in this instance, never explicitly defined in the extract given, meaning they students actually have to understand and synthesise the info they have got to get anywhere (I slung in this curve-ball because they're A2 students who need some stretching).

3) At the end of the task, each student takes a piece of paper and writes, anonymously -
- one question they have about what they've just read;
- one opinion they've formed about the issues they've read about
- one thing they'd need to find out more about to understand the ideas even better.

4) After they come back from their dinner break, everyone sits around in a circle, with no desks (I'm currently really into getting rid of the desks unless they're really needed). On each chair is someone's anonymous piece of paper.

5) Going round the circle, each student reads out one of the three items on their piece of paper to the rest of the group and responds to it. Ie, they answer or critique the question; they agree or disagree with the opinion, and explain why; or they discuss what they know about the field someone wants to know more about.

6) When a student reads out from a paper, any other student may respond by agreeing, disagreeing or building on what has been said, or by taking the discussion off in a tangential but related direction.

7) If there is eerie, tumbleweed silence after someone has read out an item, the class can decide whether they need to spend a "Stewart Voucher" - a free pass which means I have to chip in and "give them the answers" in a didactic style.

There are only six "Stewart Vouchers," so the class cannot expect me to have the last word (or any word) on too much of the discussion.

Decisions to spend a Stewart Voucher must be unanimous amongst the group. Anyone who vetos the spending of a Stewart Voucher will be expected to move the discussion onwards themselves.


So, yeah, I tried that.

In one hour, the class had only spent three Stewart Vouchers, and the third of those was used because they had three minutes left in the lesson and figured they might as well use it up.
The rest of the time, slowly and tentatively, but respectfully and articulately, they debated the issues raised in Aitchison's book, and, by concensus, developed their own (accurate) working definitions of Descriptivism, Prescriptivism and Standards Debate, as well as saying some really interesting things in general.

Everyone spoke at least once - no-one's reading their own thought/question, so they can't feel so embarrassed.

Everyone was responded to at least once.

Everyone got their point of view heard. It wasn't in their voice - their classmates read from anonymous papers - but everyone had asked a question or expressed an opinion.

At the end, a student who I ususally spend all day grumbling at for text messaging instead of working said, "We should do that again, Stewart. That was good." and willingly engaged me in a conversation about how we could adapt the task to make it even more useful in future.

It's good when stuff works like that. I feel good that I took the chance on doing this lesson.