Discussion Strategies

Thunks:

            Researching thunks was a bit of a challenge for me because I was not coming up with many good resources. It looks like thunks are a very interesting way to get you thinking, and I can foresee them as becoming a helpful discussion tool in the literature department. The link provided, http://www.thunks.co.uk/, sparked an idea for me to do an online weekly literature blog of thunks. It could be something that students participate in discussions based on the “thunk of the week”

ACTIVITY 1

As students are reading “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” by Jeff Kinney they should be encouraged to add thunks to the thunk box located in the classroom. Students can write them at home, or in class as long as they get into the box! The teacher should also add a few to the box that are a bit more challenging. Depending on how long it takes the students to read the book, the teacher can have one or two thunks chosen from the box per day/week to have a short discussion about. This will get the students thinking more critically about their reading. It is also a fun activity that can help students connect to the book in ways they may not have noticed before.

Pose-pause-bounce-pounce:

            This technique is meant to get some good fast paced discussion going. The following comic strip is a good representation of how pose-pause-bounce-pounce works.The bounce portion of this technique forces students to pay attention to each other and think critically about what was said.

Question continuum:

            There are two things I really like about question continuum: they allow students to give their honest feedback, and they suit yet another learning style that is not always acknowledged. The PDF provided in the following link provides suggested questions to spark student thinking within a question continuum. Question Continuum Questions While these questions can be a great jumping off point, I think it’s also important to allow students to create their own questions that they come across as they read. The following picture demonstrates how the question continuum looks, and should be used. If I were implementing this into my own class I would make sure that each color represents a different type of question, and that the students make sure to write in a legible manner. The picture comes from this blog that also has a few other helpful ideas along the same line. (Pun intended)

            As far as research is concerned, Degener (2017) suggests that high–level questioning can help students find the deeper meaning in the text. The way that a question continuum does this is by allowing students and the teacher to focus a specific portion of time dedicated to answering the more challenging questions as viewed by the students. The benefit of the continuum is that it allows the teacher to choose some questions that the students think are challenging, but also some that the students think will be a little easier without guess work. It is a great way to get students connected and involved in discussions.

References:

Degener, S., & Berne, J. (2017). Complex Questions Promote Complex Thinking. Reading Teacher, 70(5), 595-599. doi:10.1002/trtr.1535

The Question Wall:

 The Question Wall is similar to the question continuum, but does not necessarily need to have the same amount of organization. The questions are also probably going to be of a different nature. They will typically be more simplistic questions that the students have. It is a great way to get students questions answered, discussed, and prevent the “clog” of questions during general teaching times. When students are excited to add to the question wall it will get them more focused on paying close attention while reading.

ACTIVITY 2

This activity is meant to get students thinking about what they read in a fun manner. It involves a somewhat full question wall to play. Student should sit in a circle, and one person starts by asking a question. They then toss the ball to another student, who must answer the question. If they can not think of a good answer, or others show they have more to say by raising their hand, the ball can be tossed again. This process can continue until all questions have been answered or time runs out.