Professional Organization Reflection

     I went to The Rhode Island Writing Project, a lot of professionals in the teaching field attended.  Many English teachers were there, in addition to teachers who specialized in other subjects.  There were also some college students like myself there.  It was nice to be in such a professional setting, learning from professionals.

     The keynote speaker was Barry Lane, author of But How Do You Teach Writing and Writing as a Road to Self-Discovery.  The name of his keynote was “Reviving The Dead: Rigor Without Mortis”.  His speech was an interesting and varied one, that even involved him singing with an acoustic guitar.  There were some people that I recognized there, fellow teacher candidates and recent graduates from Rhode Island College.

     A workshop I attended was on Socratic discussions.  It was very interesting and had material I would like to use in the future.  I am always looking at different ways there are to organize a discussion based lesson.  A difference in this workshop is that instead of the teacher being the main arbitrator of the discussion, each student gets a turn, a different student every class, being the leader of the discussion.  Since doing the first observation assignment, which had a question involving where the power was  in the classroom, I've been thinking more about power in the classroom.  In the traditional lecture set-up the power is highly focused on the teacher.  In a more discussion based classroom more power is given to the students, but much of the power still remains on the teacher. When the discussion based lesson is combined with less traditional desk set up (like into groups or a circle) the power gap lessons further.  In this set-up though, the power gap is lessened more than ever before.  Here power is given heavily to a particular student.  That particular student has the most power to guide the discussion that day.

     At the end of the day though it is the teacher who has the power to decide who has the power the guide the discussion and how it is dispersed, therefore making the teacher always having the most power in that since.  However, in this set-up, the students can have more power in the discussion than ever before.  This can be good for several reasons.  It forces the student who is leading that day to have heavy participation in the discussion.  Also when the teacher is leading the discussion, which is typical, students, on some level, may not feel as comfortable voicing their opinions if they contradict the opinions of the teacher.  No matter how much the teacher says how all opinions on the text are welcome and valid; many students may still on some level feel uncomfortable having a contradictory opinion, even if the teacher is trying to actively encouraging them to voice those opinions.  No matter how often the teacher says all ideas are equal, most students will still perceive the teacher ideas as having more weight.  This is less of a problem when a peer is leading the discussion.  So when the teacher goes to the side-lines and makes the discussion purely peer-to-peer, the discussion can take a different turn where no ideas are considered to have significantly more weight than others.

     Overall I would say that attending the Rhode Island Writing Project conference was a rewarding and educational experience.