Week #3 Blog Post

This week's reading were interesting because they addressed the differences between recitations and discussions. I had honestly never thought about the two being different from each other until reading the articles, and then quickly realized that even though they are both different, I find them both beneficial. Even though recitations are more teacher-directed situations, I think these are, in some ways, more beneficial to the shy learners who experience high anxiety during discussion. For these individuals, class discussion may cause so much stress that they are unable to focus on the actual topics of discussion and what is relevant for comprehension. On the other hand, Almasi points out benefits of discussion within the classroom by stating that, "discussions of literature may be viewed as a social environment in which students can witness how group members work together to collaboratively construct meaning while also participating in the process" (p.43). The author also goes on to say how readers comprehend material much better if they are able to talk and discuss it aloud. If the teacher presents an idea to the class, the discussion will form around the topic, but then branch off to other areas to demonstrate other viewpoints. I see a healthy mix of recitation and discussion in my kindergarten class each week. My CT will sometimes ask students questions and they will answer as a whole and that will be the end of it as soon as the question is answered. Other times (and I feel this has a lot to do with the age group of my students) the CT will ask about a topic and the children will go off on tangents to start a discussion. For example, this past week my CT asked the students to describe the weather outside to her. When one student did this accurately, our CT began to move on, but other students starting chiming in about what snow is and what temperature is, which led my CT to give a science talk. When students do not participate in the conversations, my CT often scaffolds the discussion for certain shy learners. For example, she will call on them and ask them simple questions, or prompt these students by telling them what she is going to ask next, etc.
My field experience connect well with Goldenberg's article about instructional conversation. The author states that an instructional conversation is one that is engaging to the students in order to maximize comprehension and understanding. By gaining children's interest in conversation, they are typically more willing to be a part of the discussion and learn more in the long run. In my classroom I have seen this many times when my CT really "gets into" what she is teaching. For example, she incorporates her own personal experiences with the topic that they are talking about or tells stories to make the issue more personable. This article interested me because when I reflect on the teachers that most impacted me throughout my schooling career, it was the ones who had the strongest and most powerful instructional conversations.