Date Posted:13:20:08 06/19/07 Tue Author: Priscila Subject: Peer editing to Anne Karoline
TASK FOUR
The effectiveness of Class Discussion
There are many teaching methods that we can use inside a classroom - some are more efficient and some are less – and all of them have their strengths and limitations. In this essay, the teaching method to be exposed is the class discussion, with its demands and conditions to work. However, although it is a good teaching method, it may have more disadvantages than advantages in its usage.
Class discussion represents a good opportunity for the students to speak and show their own ideas in the classroom; it allows the students to participate in an active process and thus(p) understand better the issue presented. The teacher can see the student’s poitn of view,if it (wrong word choice) is following the class’ content or even if it(wrong word choice) is paying attention to the subject. The discussion is also effective after a presentation(v) film or some experience that needs analysis, to assure that the issue was quite understood.
On the other hand, class discussion has its limitations too. It is not practical if it involves more than twenty people, because not anybody may have a chance to speak; few people can dominate the discourse; it may not be so efficient with shy students, which may avoid speaking in most class sessions; it is time consuming, because it is hard to control a discussion if there is too much to talk about, and if the flow of ideas is intense. Class discussion also requires a careful planning, good guidelines and question outline, or it can get off track and spend more time then the expected.
For the reasons that could be noted in the paragraphs above, class discussion has a limited use (less than 20 people, after presentation of something that demands analysis, time available), thus, it presents a major number of disadvantages in its use. It is good for the teacher to plan carefully when, where and how the class discussion will be used; it is also good to check if the conditions for this kind of in-class activity are (wvf)appropriate.
Hi Anne, my pair did not do task 4,so I chose your essay to edit. So, here it goes: your text is well written, the topic is very intesting and you definetely supported your thesis statement, but it was a bit hard for me to follow the reading because the sentences are too long and there are few ponctuation. Also, you did not put any refernces/works cited. Be careful about it!
Sincerely,
Priscila