Classroom Talk

· The McGee article speaks of response centered talking in the classroom. I am very familiar with this type of teaching because it was stressed in my previous TE 401 class. While it is important that students read text that is given to them, it is also important that that text is backed up further by clarification by the teacher. The students may read a whole passage of text and take it simply for face value and miss a lot of the hidden meanings or messages throughout the reading. When the teacher asks thought provoking questions about the text, the students are more likely to look at the reading in further detail and gain more understanding than they previously would have. The teacher should scaffold this type of discussion by first asking the students a general question about the text and as the students answer, the teacher should keep asking why and keep prying deeper into the subject until the students have reached the outcome or answer that is to be met. The teacher can also guide the students if they are not seeing to follow the discussion by asking more specific questions and helping the students answer the harder ones. I do see response centered discussion in my classroom quite often. One specific example would be when my CT read aloud to the entire class. After the story is read, she often asks, "Why do you think so-and-so did this?" "Why do you think he acted this way?" "What is the reasoning behind this action?". By not asking the students too specific of questions the students feel less like they're going to answer a question wrong, which may turn them away from asking; more students are likely to participate in discussions than answering questions in front of the whole class. There are a few students that do not participate at all in any kind of discussion that they teacher holds. These students, I believe, either do not know the answers to the questions, are shy about answering, or simply do not care. For the students who are shy about answering, group based discussion would be ideal for them to participate in.