Unlike other academic conferences that I attend, this one is particularly oriented towards practical workshop exercises, where participants engage in some of the activities that might work in the classroom.  One of my workshop leaders divided us up into groups of three, assigning each of us a role: questioner, answerer, and observer.  We were then tasked with defining a major concept (in our session, they were concepts like education, schooling and leadership).  The answerer had to define the term, the questioner then asked questions for clarification and precision, and the observer took notes and then explained back to the others in the workshop what had just occurred.

I’ve read about this sort of discussion technique, but I’ve never really been a part of it.  I found it incredibly effective, particularly because I found myself having to clarify my own thinking on certain concepts.  And so I’ve been thinking about ways that this might be productive for the literature classroom.

The basic exercise is this:

3 people in a group.

Assign each person a letter: A, B, C

Person B asks the questions

Person C gives the definition and answers the questions

Person A observes and reports at the end

Give a concept for Person C to define

Person B listens to the definition and then asks questions for clarity and precision.  These questions can be quite simple:

Clarity questions

Could you elaborate more on [x]?

Could you give me an example or an illustration?

I hear you saying … Am I correct in that understanding?

Precision questions

Could you give me more details about that?

Could you be more specific?

Could you specify your claims more fully?*

Once the questioning has gone on for a set amount of time, Person A reports what has occurred in the exchange, commenting on what was clarified and what still could be further explored.

Each member of the group then changes roles (i.e. Person A answers the questions, Person C asks the questions, Person B observes).

Do this one more time so that each person in the group has an opportunity in each role.

So.  How to use this in the literature classroom?

One way that this might be useful is as an exercise at the beginning and end of the semester.  Give each group three major terms that they’ll need to master over the course of the semester, perhaps concepts like literature, culture and author.  Then, at the end of the semester, have the students do it again, afterwards reflecting on how their understanding has changed from the beginning of the semester.

This might also be useful for brainstorming papers.  For example, if a student has a working thesis, the questioner can ask probing questions, and the observer’s notes can serve as a useful tool for the student sitting down to write.

*Questions come from Richard Paul and Linda Elder’s book Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use