Discussion Blog

Recitation is used in most of our class talks. The teacher talks for most of the time and introduces most of the new ideas and asks questions and opinions of the children from time to time, but the children are never allowed to converse freely with one another as in a true discussion setting. I do feel that our CT could give the children more opportunities to voice their opinions and suggest new ideas but I understand that a true discussion would be difficult to successfully use in a first grade classroom. Children get off-task quickly and often speak out over others. I think that in order to allow a discussion to happen the CT would first have to give examples, maybe with Erika, her, and I, as well as explain the rules of a discussion to the children. I also think that having a ball for the children to roll around designating the person who is talking would help control the chatter among the students and increase motivation for participation.