Discussion as a Way of Teaching by Stephen Brookfield

When reading about the discussion ground rules, the first thing that came to my mind was that a teacher's choice on which techniques to use in choosing ground rules for discussion would almost fully depend on the skill level and age of the students involved. If you had more experienced or mature students, you would need less ground rules, and if you had less experienced or younger students, you would most likely need to set stricter ground rules to keep the kids on task and productive. As for the section titled "Conversational Moves", I thought that the Specific Moves were very helpful in showing how you could keep students' thoughts and ideas flowing without pause or hesitation. The Conversational Roles were helpful in the same way, showing what to do when conversations get held up or meet a dead end, there are ways to get group members' thoughts moving and exploring new areas of the topic at hand that they may not have thought about before.
Another area that was interesting to me was the "Hatful of Quotes" section because I have always wondered how to get students to be intrigued with texts and actually want to read them. The "Quotes to Affirm and Challenge" section was also interesting for the same reasons, and it helped me see how I could make students feel inspired or interested in the material that I am teaching.
I also was surprised by the section that showed how to make students feel more comfortable in discussion, "Speech Policy". The quote that is an example of what to tell students to make them feel more welcome in discussion but not pressured to speak up was extremely helpful, as I would never want a student to feel uncomfortable or pressured in my classroom. I feel that it is very important as a teacher to make students feel very welcome and comfortable and in a safe space when they enter a classroom. This allows for the best type of learning because they will be more eager to participate and show up. Last, but not least, the Critical Conversations Protocol was a very helpful exercise that I will probably use in the future to help myself and students have more efficient forms of discussion that fully help the understanding of the material at hand. The exercise was complex but not confusing, and I like that it presented ideas that not every teacher would originally think of.