1st Edition

The Art of Interactive Teaching Listening, Responding, Questioning

By Selma Wassermann Copyright 2017
    128 Pages
    by Routledge

    128 Pages
    by Routledge

    In this book, Selma Wassermann, international expert on classroom interactions, sets the stage for the relevance of the interactive teaching method, provides data and classroom examples that support its effectiveness at all student learning levels and in different subject areas, and offers detailed and specific help for teachers who are considering embarking on this approach to teaching. Coverage includes "teaching to the big ideas," preparing students, and the basics of developing good listening, responding, and questioning skills in an interactive discussion. A chapter on learning to become reflective practitioners deals with how teachers may become more aware of what they are saying and in better control of framing responses and questions in the art of interactive teaching. The book draws from the author’s long experience and study of interactive teaching using the case method rooted in the Harvard Business School’s approach to large class instruction.

    Preface

    Chapter 1 Interactive Teaching: The What, the Why and the How

    Class Discussions and Class Discussions

    Interactive Teaching — It’s Not for Every Teacher

    Choosing Interactive Teaching

    Chapter 2 The Shape of Teaching and Learning in the Interactive Classroom

    What’s the Big Idea?

    Searching for the Meaning of Big Ideas

    Big Ideas Lead to the Generation of a Curriculum Task or Investigation

    Small Group Work

    Follow-up Studies

    How Long, oh, How Long?

    Chapter 3 Preparing for Interactive Teaching

    Tolerating Dissonance

    Maintaining and Relinquishing Control

    Knowing Your Own Style

    Establishing the Contract

    Chapter 4 Scenes from Interactive Classrooms

    The Train

    Germs Make Me Sick!

    The Hockey Card

    Chapter 5 Basic Interactive Skills: Listening, Attending, Apprehending, Making Meaning

    Now the Fun Begins

    A Personal Training Program for Improving One’s Listening and Attending Skills

    Practice Tasks in Listening, Attending, Paraphrasing, and Being Non-Judgmental

    Postgame Reflections on Simulations

    Conclusion

    Chapter 6 Basic Interactive skills: Responding, Saying Back, Paraphrasing, Interpreting

    Waiting for Students to Express Their Ideas

    Being Non-Judgmental in Accepting Students’ Responses: Appreciating Students’ Ideas

    Conditions that Limit and Actually Crush Student Thinking

    Becoming Aware of Differences in Responding

    Self-assessment

    Chapter 7 Basic Interactive Skills: Questioning

    Unproductive Questions

    Less-than-Productive Questions

    Productive Questions

    Guidelines for Productive Questions

    Conclusion

    Chapter 8 The Well-Orchestrated Discussion

    Chapter 9 Reflecting in Action

    It’s Eezier With a Buddy

    Appendix A: Practice in Listening, Attending, Paraphrasing, and Being Non-Judgmental

    Appendix B: Practice in Listening, Attending, and Responding

    Appendix C: Task Analysis

    Appendix D: Analyzing Interactions

    Appendix E: Cases

    The Hockey Card

    Germs Are Germs

    The Case of Barry

    Index

    Biography

    Selma Wassermann is Professor Emerita, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Canada.