Leading Discussion

Each student will lead discussion (as part of a group of 3-4) at least once a unit (there will be 6 units)

You and your partners will be teachers at least once each unit. So, what is it that teachers do? Well, although we invariably appear uniquely brilliant, captivating and insightful, (did I mention handsome?) teaching is not rocket science. But here's a secret: Teaching is, bar none, the best way to learn something. Indeed, some of the best learning occurs when teachers are discovering along with the students. That said, there are a few tricks of the trade that might help you, so here goes...

Teaching begins with questioning. For our purposes there are 4 types of questions:

• Essential questions (sometimes called themes or 'so what' questions) that span all the works under study and tie the topics of the course into overarching historical, philosophical and political themes and meta-narratives.
• Unit questions that connect the thinkers under study to each other and to their historical moment, while pointing toward the larger narratives (above).
• Daily questions that guide the trajectory of one day’s discussion and show how we weren’t just spinning our wheels but going somewhere interesting (such as toward a unit question or essential question).
• Comprehension questions to help guide the reader toward important passages or ideas for closer scrutiny and analysis and help students toward making such judgements on their own. Comprehension questions, while sometimes prosaic, establish the fodder for answering the three types of questions above.

Examples of some potential "Essential Questions" (Together we will distill these down to five questions)

• What are the essential characteristics of human nature? Is human nature good or bad?
• What is the nature of a good or ideal society?
• What is the relationship of the individual to society and to the state? What is the nature of the state and how is it formed?
• What is the right relationship of the individual to society?
• What is the relationship of individual freedom to social and political authority?
• What is the nature of the ideal social order? of liberty? of freedom?
• What is the nature of legitimate authority?
• How are these related to the conception of the ideal society?
• What are the fundamental dynamics of change? Evolution? Revolution? Transformation? Should violence or non-violence be used?
• How important is leadership? community? cooperation?
• What role do moral values play in effective change?
• What is the role and nature of nationhood?
• How and why are political philosophers "utopian", "pragmatic" or "tragic"? So what?
• What is the essential object of reform: individual, gender, society, polity, nation, world?
• What is the preferred strategy for/ means of reform: personal, political, divine, incremental, revolutionary, legislative, violent?
• What is the strategy of argument: style, humor, point of view, literary conventions, satire?

OK, so how do we begin?

First, come and talk as a group to me. In all of what follows, be sure to coordinate with your teaching partners: do your fair share, be respectful and generous of spirit. The general strategy is first to comprehend and understand the work for yourself, then to help the students comprehend and understand the work, and, finally, to assess the students understanding and your own. For criteria for assessing student understanding, see the student-designed assessment rubric for students. For criteria for assessing teacher work, see the student-designed assessment rubric for teachers.

Teacher Comprehension and Understanding

1. Read the work. Always begin with the text itself, as it is the origin of the most credible meaning in our study. Try to put yourself in the shoes of the author: What was his/her intent? Read the primary source first for yourself (not thinking about teaching it).

2. Now go back and read the introduction or take a quick look in the textbook or go online to get a quick sense of the historical, biographical, theoretical and historiographic context of the work and interpretations of the work. Be aware that this introduction is only one perspective on the work- You are only taking a shortcut to more comprehensive studies. Try to ascertain the point of view and potential biases of the introduction's author.

3. Using what you have gleaned from your first reading of the text and from the introduction, establish the historical, biographical, theoretical and historiographic context of the work. In each case, go from the general to the specific: from reference texts (encyclopedias) and quick "googling" to interpretative secondary source surveys (textbooks), to analytical monographs, to autobiographies (if available), etc.

4. With the various texts and contexts in mind, go back and read the work again to look for learning opportunities. As you do, make marginalia and longhand notes to begin constructing the questions you will need to ask your students. Work on multiple levels, considering possible essential, unit, daily and comprehension questions, along with potential activities. Create an outline of the important arguments of the book.

5. Write down your goals for the class. Consider reading assignments, questions to assign, questions to use in class, homework and classroom activities in the context of your overall teaching goals. The goal is not to guide students toward your answers, but to draw them from the text toward questions of increasing significance. Construct questions and assignments that are open enough to permit (indeed demand) student initiative and exploration, but permit the students to benefit from what you know. Try to steer students toward the most productive avenues of exploration, but leave room for surprises. Keep the "unit" and "essential" questions in mind as you establish goals for each class session.

6. Distill and cull through your material to choose the most effective questions and most productive assignments. Don't try to impress your students with your mastery. Don't lose the work under study.

7. Check your questions for relevance against those for other works in the course, against the essential questions for the course and in the context of current events. Have you placed the work within the context of the course? Do the potential themes you hope to reveal complement the thesis (theses) of the course? Consider the course to be an essay and the unit to be a body paragraph, would your discussion of a specific author make a good example in support of the topic sentence (unit questions) and central thesis (essential questions)? If not, go back to 4, or go back to me and tell me to choose another text.

8. Consider the best medium and means with which to present your questions and assignments: a list of questions? written homework? class discussion? web discussion? walking tour? museum visit? slide show? powerpoint presentation? debate? role-playing simulation? essay? group work? Don't be seduced by sexy technique, but, rather, choose the forum best suited to the material and the kind of discussion you feel will complement the material and contribute to student understanding. Have me check all materials. Be sure to get all relevant material to your students (via me) with plenty of time for them to use it effectively

9. Prepare for class by getting a good night's rest, dressing well, sharing with your partners and trying out ideas on friends and family. Read The New York Times to see if there are productive connections between the class material and current events.

10. In class be respectful of the students, even as you seek to provoke discussion and stimulate thinking. Listen. No, really, listen. Try not to "fish" when asking questions. In other words, do not ask questions to which there is only one answer or to which you will only accept "your" answer. This is not a quiz show and there is no Club Med vacation behind curtain number 2. The reward is "understanding," or getting to ask a better question. At the same time, there are better and worse answers and you should distinguish between them and validate good class work. Consider your own criteria for great, good and poor responses before class. (You may wish to peruse the rubric we designed in class for such criteria) Remember to share the stage with your teaching partners. Be generous and supportive but hold the students to a high standard.

11. Consider how you might assess the work of the students. Discuss your assessment criteria with me and be prepared to provide an assessment of student work. You may wish to modify the assessment rubric, or design one of your own. When you're done, go out and have a pizza with your group. Gossiping about the students is optional.