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Importance of discussion in the classroom.

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Samantha Corcoran, University of Wisconsin-River Falls

Abstract: Discussion in classrooms makes learning more interactive and helps students develop skills that cannot be taught in a traditional lecture format. Large group discussion is not a perfect teaching strategy and neither is small group discussion, but there are things educators can do to improve the practical usage of discussion in the classroom. When it comes to assessment, there are many options for the educator to choose from. The best choice depends on what would be most beneficial for the students.

Keywords: large group discussion, small group discussion, assessing discussion
The Benefits of Discussion
Increasing how much students actively participate in the classroom increases the students' enjoyment of the class and their retention of factual knowledge. (Costa et. al, 2007). A study was done on undergraduate medical students. Two groups of students took the same class. They covered the same information and took the same tests but one class was taught following a traditional lecture format while the other consisted of open discussion sessions. The medical students who were in the discussion group enjoyed the style of teaching more than the students in the lecture group and test results show that interactive teaching practices increase knowledge retention. (Costa, et. al, 2007)

Discussions help students develop and strengthen interpersonal communication skills as well as analytical and critical thinking skills. Research shows a positive correlation between the quality of classroom discussion and the how well students understand what they have learned (Murphy et al, 2009). It also suggests that improved discussion in the classroom will help students build better problem solving skills. (Murphy, et. al, 2009)

Discussions help to summarize what students have learned and strengthens conceptual and procedural knowledge. When students have problems understanding something, having a discussion makes it clearer to both the teacher and the student exactly what the student is struggling with and then the teacher can address the problem and fix it (de Garcia, 2013). There are lots of benefits associated with the use of discussion in education, yet it is not something that enough teachers take advantage of.
Problems and Solutions for Facilitating Discussion
A whole class discussion can be a wonderful tool when used correctly, but it is not always the best strategy to use if the goal is to get every student to talk. Large group discussions have certain downfalls when it comes to getting students to talk. Many students are not comfortable speaking in front of the whole class. They are worried that they will make a mistake and embarrass themselves in front of their peers. Students who are shy or less confident may not contribute at all. (Jing, 2010)

These problems can be addressed in several different ways. First, there are things educators can do to make students feel more comfortable. People often feel more comfortable when they know the other people they are talking with. "For rich discussions, the emotional environment of the classroom must be safe" It is when students feel safe that they are willing to share and discussions move past the surface level. (de Garcia, 2013) Group bonding or introductory games might be one way of making students feel more comfortable.

Another thing to get students to talk is to put them in smaller groups. In smaller groups student participation tends to be spread out more equally among group members than it is in a larger group. In a full class discussion only one person can speak at a time but when a class is broken up into smaller groups a student from each group can be speaking at any given time. That way more students get the opportunity to speak in the same amount of time. (Jing, 2010)

Students who are uncomfortable speaking in front of the whole class might find a smaller group less daunting. If they can speak with the smaller group it may help students gain the confidence to speak in front of the whole class. Think-Pair-Share is a discussion strategy that combines both small group and large group discussion. When given a question students think for a moment then break off into pairs or small groups. They discuss in the small group and then share with the class. If a student is nervous about talking in front of the whole classroom, Think-Pair-Share allows them a chance to practice before talking to the whole class.
Create Better Discussion
There are other things the teacher can do to help the discussion go smoothly. If the teacher is leading the discussion it is important to wait. All too often teachers do not give students time to answer before they answer their own questions. The wait time after the question is asked gives students time to process the question and come up with an answer. (de Garcia) Whether a classroom has a chalkboard or a dry erase board, having individual students write their ideas on the board gets the students involved and creates a public document to look back and reference to during the discussion. A teacher could ask a student to lead the discussion or have the students continue the discussion by calling on other students after they speak.

Another thing to improve a discussion is for the teacher to move out of the students' immediate sight. By sitting in the back of the classroom during the discussion the students are forced to focus on each other. If the conversation still lulls then the teacher steps in by asking follow up questions to get the students talking again. Perhaps guiding the discussion every now and then the teacher can just let the students build their discussion on their own. At the end of the discussion, summarize what was talked about. This provides another reminder of what material was covered as well as makes the students feel like their contribution matters.
Strategies for Assessment
So now the students are talking but what's the point? All too often students judge the importance of assignments based on the number of points or the grade percentage it is worth. If something is not being graded students might see it as something unimportant. This becomes a problem when it is time to assess group discussion. Another Problem is that group discussion teaches skills that aren't easily assessable. Some forms of assessment are more commonly seen in the classroom. There are many well-known assessment strategies for problem solving and knowledge acquisition but discussion assessment is not as well known. (Alozie, Mitchell, 2014)

It is much more objective than did a student get the right answer to a math problem. When people are talking about important things they tend to have opinions. When they have opinions emotions can get riled up in a moment. Part of a discussion is learning to keep calm and how to deal with a situation where others are upset. Discussion also teaches students to consider the points of view of other people.

This provides a bit of a dilemma when it comes to assessment. If nothing is assessed students might see the assignment as unimportant, but if too many things are assessed, students might see the things being assessed as meaningless. Traditional assessment is extremely competitive and individual but discussion requires multiple people working together. If students are competing against each other they will not be able to work well as a group. The assessment needs to encourage the quality learning of material while at the same time discouraging undesired learning practices. Assessment should encourage students to think deeper about what they are studying and discourage them from short-term memorization for tests.

In group assessment students are not judged by their own efforts but instead judged by the collective work of the group. This form of assessment takes the pressure off of induvial students but allows for people who do little work and still get a good grade because the rest of the group picked up their slack. Students can become very upset when somebody else is getting credit for what they see as their own work.

Peer assessment is another option. With peer assessment students grade each other. Peers provide a unique form of assessment that can be very useful when used correctly. The problem with peer assessment is that when one student gives another student a bad grade that student knows it was one of his peers who graded him. It can breed distrust among a group that is supposed to be working together. Peer assessment has been shown to be valuable when it is not graded but simply used by an indivual to make their own assessment and improvements.

Finally, negotiated assessment is a form of assessment in which all parties involved in an assignment agree on how the assessment should happen. It involves a discussion of what the intended goal of the assignment is, how the assessment is recorded, and what criteria are being assessed.

These are just a few forms of assessment that have been applied to discussion in the past. Each form of assessment has flaws but they assess different things. Depending on the assignment and the assignment goals one form of assessment might be better suited. There is no perfect assessment method. Sometimes no assessment is the best answer. It all depends on the situation and what would be most beneficial to the students.
Why is This Important?
Discussion is a tool to be used in the classroom. When it is used correctly it increases students' enjoyment of the class and strengthens students' understanding of concepts. It is a tool that needs to be used correctly in order for it to help all of the students in a classroom. Educators can vary group sizes and activities before discussion. During the discussion it is an educator's job to let the students discus and when it comes time for assessment there are different strategies for different situations. Discussion is a tool that should be used in the classroom.

References

Alozie, N., & Mitchell, C. (2014). Getting Students Talking: Supporting Classroom Discussion Practices in Inquiry-Based Science in Real-Time Teaching. The American Biology Teacher, 76(8), 501-506. Retrieved September, 2015.

Boud, D., Cohen, R., & Sampson, J. (1999). Peer Learning and Assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 24(4), 413-424. Retrieved September, 2015.

Costa, M., Van Rensburg, L., & Rushton, N. (2007). Does Teaching Style Matter? Medical Education, 41(2), 214-217. Retrieved September, 2015.

de Garcia, L. A. (2013). How to Get Students Talking! Generating Math Talk That Supports Math Learning. MathSolutions, http://www.mathsolutions.com/documents/How_to_Get_Students_Talking.pdf, downloaded in May.

Jing, M. (2010). Cooperative Learning Method in the Practice of English Reading and Speaking. Journal Of Language Teaching & Research, 1(5), 701-703.

Murphy, K., Soter, A., Wilkinson, I., Hennessey, M., & Alexander, J. (2009). Determining the Effects of Classroom Discussion on Students' Comprehension of Text: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(3), 740-764. Retrieved September, 2015.

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Discussion in the Classroom: Why to Do It, How to Do It, and How to Assess It

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Samantha Corcoran, University of Wisconsin-River Falls Abstract: Discussion in classrooms makes learning more interactive and helps students develop skills that cannot be taught in a traditional lecture format. Large group discussion is not a perfect teaching strategy and neither is small group discussion, but there are things educators can do to improve the practical usage of discussion in the classroom.

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Bring the students outside and have them sit in an orderly fashion or lined up. They should each have a little space to work quietly.

Tell students to go and search for interesting fallen leaves, dirt, grass, small rocks, sticks, etc… always thinking about how they are going to use each object.

Have them bring the objects back to their spot and sort them neatly.

When students have their objects ready, give them paper, cover it in glue and let them get to work creating their environmental masterpiece!

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Kristen Laky

Last Updated 04/13/2020

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Acceptable Use Policy Advocacy Announcements Digital Citizenship FAQ Parent Information School Information Student Information Teacher Information Technology © Kristen Laky Last Updated 04/13/2020 kristen.laky@smail.astate.edu

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There are tons of Environmental Fun Facts for Kids on this site that could be encouraging for students while writing their poems.

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Think about how you feel when your room is a mess. Maybe there are socks and dirty clothes piled on the floor.

An old banana peel sits on the dresser and juice from a tipped over juice box drips down the side. How does your room feel? Do you like spending time there? Probably not. You might feel frustrated and annoyed. But when your room is clean, it feels peaceful, happy and safe.

The Earth is your home too. And when it's clean and healthy, the people, plants and animals that live on it are clean, healthy and happy. The Earth is a fragile place that can be damaged easily by people. The good news is that people can also clean it up and take care of it.

Fun Facts About Taking Care of the Earth for Kids

We get everything we need from the Earth - food, clothing, shelter and even medicines. But we have to be careful not to take more than we need and to use our resources carefully.

Loggers cut trees down in forests for paper, furniture and buildings. But if they don't plant more trees, soon the forests are gone. Animals have no place to live.

Factories sometimes dump leftover chemicals in rivers and lakes. These chemicals can pollute the water, killing animals and plants, and even polluting the water we drink.

Burning fossil fuels in cars or to make electricity causes global warming.

Taking Care of the Earth Vocabulary

All About Taking Care of the Earth Video for Kids

Watch this awesome Taking Care of the Earth video for kids:

Taking Care of the Earth Q&A

Question: How can we help take care of the Earth?

Answer: You can help take care of the Earth by recycling. Avoid using plastic bags and bottles, and recycle any plastic you do use. Walk or ride your bike when you can and pick up litter than you see. Encourage your parents to drive the smallest, most fuel efficient car they can.

Enjoyed the Earth Science for Kids all about Taking Care of the Earth info? Take the FREE & fun all about Taking Care of the Earth quiz and download FREE all about Taking Care of the Earth worksheet for kids. For lengthy info click here.

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Think about how you feel when your room is a mess. Maybe there are socks and dirty clothes piled on the floor. An old banana peel sits on the dresser and juice from a tipped over juice box drips down the side. How does your room feel? Do you like spending time there?

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Nature can inspire poetry and creativity. As a part of an additional activity, students would be instructed to write a poem that involves environmental factors that they see outside. This application will allow students to take a picture and write a poem using the picture as a background.

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Have fun creating your own beautiful, passionate, and romantic poetry, with your own pictures as backgrounds! Tap a button to pop up some words, and then drag them around the screen to create your masterpiece. Send your creations to your significant other for a romantic surprise, or to your friends to make them smile!

* Brand new version fully up-to-date for iOS 8.
* Universal app - works on your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.
* Built-in iOS 8 photo extension so you can write poems everywhere!
* Makes it extremely easy to create a beautiful poem, even if you've never written one before!
* Change the background to any picture from your photo library to make a beautiful composition!
* In-app purchases for extra word themes: Passionate, Pirate, Sadness, and even LOLCat!
* Contains a special algorithm to give you exactly the words you need to make an amazing poem!
* Email an image of your finished creation - a great way to brighten the day of your friends, family, or lover!

If you love being creative or just want to brighten up someone's day, pick up Instant Poetry today!

***** "I have close to 400 apps, and this is my absolute favorite!!!!"
***** "Absolutely awesome. I've made a few poems for my boyfriend and his favorite part? The words being over his favorite pictures."
***** "I think this app is great cause it's easy to use...It's nice to send this to a friend and it puts a smile on their face."

We love to hear from you! Drop us a note anytime at razeware.com.

Some suggestions...

I made an instant poem and ended up with "you are the holding" and got really freaked out And deleted and uninstalled. So, after taking some time to think about it I came up with some suggestions because three stars are for the concept and the style of ui. I think there are some creative writing keyboards out there and they should somehow integrate with the options and you could provide the links to the creative keyboards you know of and enjoy. That's all i got. Maybe a timer with memo too. Thanks.

Love this app!

It's a really great magnetic poetry app that allows you to place words over your own photos. You can even edit words, fonts, and background colors to make your piece more unique. The free version has so many more options than other, similar apps

App Keeps Crashing

Whenever I click "new poem" in the application it keeps crashing! Please fix it! I love it so much and want to use it! I've tried hard resetting, uninstalling and reinstalling the app, but nothing has worked!

Information

Compatibility

Requires iOS 8.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Copyright

© 2014 Razeware LLC

In-App Purchases

1. Super Poet $2.99

2. Pirate Word Pack $0.99

3. Passionate Word Pack $0.99
more

Family Sharing

With Family Sharing set up, up to six family members can use this app.

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‎Have fun creating your own beautiful, passionate, and romantic poetry, with your own pictures as backgrounds! Tap a button to pop up some words, and then drag them around the screen to create your masterpiece. Send your creations to your significant other for a romantic surprise, or to your friends...

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A great application that students can use to sketch nature.

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From quick sketches to fully finished artwork, Sketchbook goes where your creativity takes you.

Sketchbook is an award-winning sketching, painting, and drawing app for anyone who loves to draw. Artists and illustrators love Sketchbook for its professional-grade feature set and highly customizable tools. Everyone loves Sketchbook for its elegant interface and natural drawing experience, free of distractions so you can focus on capturing and expressing your ideas.

* A full complement of brush types: pencils markers, airbrushes, smear and more that look and feel just like their physical counterparts
* Brushes are highly customizable so you can create just the look you want
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Purchase the Premium Bundle to unlock more...
* Import and export brushes
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* Export to PDF
* plus more to come!

Amazing app! Suggestions

This art app is so great!! I've been using it for about a year now and I love just about everything about it. I've used other digital drawing apps in the past (like Medibang), but this is the app I found the highest liking to. This app is so, so good, and I'm definitely going to be using it for a long while.

There are some things that could be added to this. One thing is a pen tool. Not the actual brush, but the tool were you can tap, make points that you can shape to lines curves. This is a great tool for line art and could be VERY useful to users on here. Another thing that could be added is for users to be able to create their own selection of brushes. We can only have one already created pin at a time, but a lot of us mix different brushes from other pins. Like I almost always use the Inking Pen, Fountain Pen, Colorless Round Brush, Hard Eraser, Hair Brush, Airbrush, Pencil Pal, and the Synthetic Round Bristle Brush in each of my works, and they almost all come from different pins. It would be helpful if we didn't have to go searching for certain brushes each time we want them.

This really, really is a great drawing app, and I definitely recommend it to people who may or even may not try it out. I hope my two small suggestions help, as they could be helpful to other users and myself. I love this app so much! Can't wait to see what other great things come out of it.

Love it! But please add tools

I absolutely love this app! It's by far the best free drawing app out there... it has so many tools and features, and preset colors are really handy. It's also really easy to edit with, surprisingly. So it does more than just draw with a little help of copy and pasting of layers. My phone has a pretty small screen, (iPhone 5s) but with a stylus, it's actually pretty easy to draw real art. And it has so many brushes. And the app runs super smoothly on my phone. And a bonus, no annoying ads. No in-app purchases. I absolutely love that, and is yet another reason why I love this app. I also really love the design of the app, once you get the hang of what it can do it's so easy. And the clean minimalist appearance is really nice. My recommendation for future updates, there isn't really a way to just blend colors. Sure there are brushes with that affect, but it would be so helpful if there was a blender that just blurred the colors together instead of smearing them; a brush that isn't supposed to resemble any real-life brush. If you could add that it would be so helpful! Also when I save a drawing to my camera roll, the quality is reduced from what it was in the app, So normally I just screenshot my art instead. But if you could fix this issue I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for this amazing app. I definitely recommend.

Great sketching app!

Great app! I've had this app maybe for a month but I already love it. The features are a lovely mix of creative and technical that I can really appreciate. I also love that you can purchase the extra tools without having to commit to some yearly payment plan.

I've only found one bug so far that keeps this review from being five stars. When I first started using the app, I noticed that using the hold-touch-eyedropper function, even by accident, would cause the app to effectively crash. I could still access all of my projects, but none of the tools would make any mark whatsoever until I went out of the app, closed it out, and restarted it. After I turned the long-hold-touch shortcut off, the bug didn't pop up as often, but every once in a while, it still does act like I've activated the eyedropper and the app will 'crash' again. The bug never happens when I manually go into the color wheel and click the eye dropper button, so I think the bug is linked to the gesture shortcut that I can't seem to turn off.

The bug isn't a super big deal, but it is a little annoying, especially if you do like to use that shortcut and keep it switched on, and it is irritating to have my work interrupted because I have to restart the app. It would be great if the developers could fix it in the next update. Otherwise, the app is great for drawing and sketching and I would definitely recommend it.

Hi Kjolblk, you are the second person in two days who have come across this issue. Would you mind submitting a ticket? This will provide a way for our devs and support to contact you, if they have any further questions. Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention! (https://support.sketchbook.com/hc/requests/new?ticket_form_id=149598)

The developer, Sketchbook, Inc, indicated that the app's privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer's privacy policy.

Data Not Collected

The developer does not collect any data from this app.

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

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‎From quick sketches to fully finished artwork, Sketchbook goes where your creativity takes you. Sketchbook is an award-winning sketching, painting, and drawing app for anyone who loves to draw. Artists and illustrators love Sketchbook for its professional-grade feature set and highly customizable...

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By Melissa Lennig on . This content contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Inside: Kids of all ages will enjoy using leaves, twigs, pebbles, and pinecones to make creative nature art! It's the perfect fall nature craft for kids.

Fall is the perfect season for enjoying nature and playing outside with your family. There is so much to see, do, and learn about.

Outdoor Play is Important

Balanced and active play lays the foundation for a skilled, healthy, resilient, and successful society. Sadly, play is rapidly disappearing from our homes, schools, and communities. Did you know that while approximately 70% of moms played outside when they were young, only 31% of their kids play outside today?
Moms, we need to change that.
Like me, you probably enjoy fond childhood memories of playing outside with your friends and family. Let's give our kids the same fresh-air experiences! Whether enjoying a nature walk, a bike ride, free play in the yard with friends, or a visit to an outdoor place of play, the important thing is that outdoor play happens daily.
Related: Tips for Taking Nature Walks with Kids
Creating Nature Art with Kids

One simple way to get kids outside is with a nature scavenger hunt! Give children a small paper lunch bag and challenge them to collect natural objects from the forest floor in every color from red to violet. The natural objects they collect will be perfect conversation starters, keepsakes, and art supplies for Nature Art.

To Make This Craft You Will Need

Directions for Nature Art

Our favorite time of day to get outside is after school. Not only is the sunlight beautiful in outdoor places of play, but there is a better chance of seeing crepuscular animals like deer, fox, and rabbits. I always bring along a backpack that contains my camera, our Ohio nature guide, art supplies, sketchbooks, water, and healthy on-the-go snacks.

After snack, head to a picnic table with the kids to create Nature Art.

Kids will enjoy creating funny animals, characters, and scenes with bark, acorns, leaves, twigs, pinecones, and small stones.

Invite kids to add details to their Nature Art with crayons, markers, or colored pencils.

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Inside: Kids of all ages will enjoy using leaves, twigs, pebbles, and pinecones to make creative nature art! It's the perfect fall nature craft for kids. Fall is the perfect season for enjoying nature and playing outside with your family. There is so much to see, do, and learn about.