Methods of Teaching

Today in class (5 minutes)
Select a Student Teacher to give a two-minute summary of the previous class. Ask if 
anyone would like to add to the summary. If you get volunteers, choose no more than 
two and restrict their comments to one minute each. 
Tell the Student Teachers that they are going to note some generalizations about how 
the teachers they observed distributed their attention among their entire class. This 
will involve a whole-class discussion based on their classroom observations.
Choosing rules for today’s discussion (15 minutes)
Discussions are a useful means for integrating information from several sources. Good 
discussions don’t just happen; the participants have to work to have a good discussion. 
Let’s talk for a few minutes about characteristic of good and bad discussions.

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COURSE GUIDE: Methods of Teaching
41
UNIT 1
UNIT 4
UNIT 5
UNIT 3
UNIT 6
UNIT 2
UNIT 7
Think for a minute about the best discussion you have ever had. What made the 
conversation so satisfying? Pause for a minute and then call on six or seven people 
to say what they think. Choose one student to write what each says on the board or 
chart paper.
Now think for a minute about the worst discussion you have ever had. What 
made that conversation so unsatisfactory? (Proceed as with the discussion on 
good conversations.)
Using the good and bad features of discussion, guide the class to formulate four rules 
for today’s discussion.
Small-group work to prepare for discussion (15 minutes)
Put two triads together to create groups of six. (It is hoped that the triads that 
observed together discussed their observations before they wrote reflective papers on 
the observations.) During the time allotted, the triads should compare the findings 
from their observations, look for common patterns and exceptions, and record them 
on chart paper and post when the small groups reconvene as a class.