Class discussion and scaffolding

There are many types of “talk” that I see within my classes here at MSU. Typically each type of talk is centered on a specific kind of class. When there is lecturing, the professor does most of the talking, just giving time to answer questions prompted by the students. When in a smaller recitation of a lecture class typically these classes are more discussion based. Within the Goldenberg article, he talks about the importance of discussion based activities. He talks about how the teacher should be the mediator and the initiator, but not the dominant speaker within the discussion. The teacher should prompt meaningful questions and allow the students to dictate what the main points to consider are. Sophomore year I took an IAH class that had a recitation that used the ideas Goldenberg suggested. Our TA would prompt a question and let the class discuss until there were no comments left. Within a class in a university most if not all of the students have learned the scaffolding measures to make this mean of discussion influential. In an elementary school classroom, however, students may not have the previous scaffolding techniques to be able to understand how to withhold this type of talk. Students must learn how to ask meaningful questions, listen to their classmates in order to build upon their answers, and learn how to take the focus off of the teacher and on the class. Some types of scaffolding a teacher may use are asking open-ended questions to try and promote class discussion or have children work in small groups to become more comfortable interacting with other classmates.