Meeting #3     5/29/2020

For our third meeting we discussed the brief chapter “Conversation.” Guiding questions to consider ahead of time were:

• What is your response to hooks’ view of the role of conversation in the classroom?
• Are there ways to create spaces for meaningful conversation when enacting distance learning?
• Are there approaches you’ve implemented this semester that allow the benefits of conversation to be a part of your classes?

We had a lively discussion about whether and in what ways the conversations that take place during face to face to instruction can or should be replicated on line. Some participants worked, this semester, to use the technological tools available to them as best they could to try to replicate the exchanges of experiences, ideas, and observations that take place during in person conversations in the classroom. Others put their energies into scaffolding student collaborations that are more specific to a remote learning environment, such as use of google docs and Discussion Board. One participant commented that, “You can’t grow a plant on-line.” Others noted that, even facilitating discussions via video meetings was just not the same as the “carnival of the classroom” which, at its best, can be so generative of intellectual inspiration for students.

Along with this more general discussion of pedagogical philosophy, some specific ideas for effective on-line practices were shared, including:

• Assign roles to small groups
• Place students in ongoing groups based on their availability
• Have groups create and share a final product – e.g. a googledoc, PowerPoint, etc.
• Have different students be responsible for leading discussions each week
• Take pieces of a conversation and make a record of them in a googledoc
• Have students work on a writing assignment after they’ve had a conversation about it
• Use Zoom breakout rooms as well as techniques such as, “Think, Pair, Share” and “Turn and Talk.” Such strategies are especially helpful to students who may be reluctant to speak in a large group.