John Kim #12

Of all the key concepts and skills that we have learned this semester, one that I would like to teach to freshmen classes would be the skills involved in discussion. In many classes, discussions are an indispensable part of learning that engages students and compels them to think. The nature of a discussion requires participants to make arguments against one another and this can be difficult to achieve in a classroom setting as people can disregard what others are saying and just talk about what they want to talk about or outright denounce their points.

One particular skill that I have learned about entering group discussion is acknowledging and recapitulating the former person’s argument and using that as a starting point for your own argument. By implementing the template “XXX I hear you think that ooo. I go further to say that YYY” or “XXX I hear you think that OOO. However, I think YYY” within discussions, the discussion is elevated to another level. Not only are you applying the “They say I say” structure and thus making your own argument stronger but you are also showing how you are paying attention to other’s argument and have considered their points. This makes speakers feel comfortable as they know their arguments are being heard and the speakers themselves will attentively tune into other’s contributions to discussion so that may rebut against those who disagree with their point. Furthermore, this prevents the discussion from going off tangent. Because you are making your point in relation to what the previous person had said, it is very difficult to go off topic and whatever is said will always be relevant to the topic.

In terms of teaching this to the class, I think the only way is to actually practice using it in discussion. So whenever a class discussion comes up, I would require the students to recapitulate what the previous speaker had said and then make their point based on what he/she said.

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