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.
Table of Contents:
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
