We discussed book clubs in class on Thursday, and it was one of my favorite discussions so far. That might be because it was one of the few discussions we've had that relates directly to my intended career as a public librarian, or maybe it's because it made me feel like an English major again. In any case, it was nice to talk about something other than teaching.
I especially enjoyed the Socratic seminar in the second half of the class. Actually acting out a book group scenario was helpful for putting our readings into context. The index cards that we used to record our questions, for example, was a good exercise. In this case, only a few people actually read their questions to the group before the conversation hit its stride. In another group or class, though, all of the questions might have been needed.
I also noticed that the discussion felt very much like many of my undergraduate classes, where we sat in a circle around the room with the professor at the front, but we spoke to each other, not just to the professor. In this class, though, even though Kristin was a facilitator and not the leader of the discussion, it still felt like she was the leader. Maybe it would have been different if it had been a student facilitating, or maybe it wouldn't have mattered. I would be interested in how this dynamic would play out in different circumstances.
I am looking forward to seeing how our book groups this week will compare. We covered a lot of guidelines in our discussion last week, but I suspect that it is more or less intuitive in practice. I suppose we'll find out.
It is interesting that we were still all referencing Kristin. There is a lot of lecture in this program, perhaps because that's just the nature of the beast (i.e. two years to learn an awful lot of stuff), and not as many discussion-based classes as I'm used to. Once you get into the mindset of being talked to by one person, it can be hard for a class to escape.
ReplyDeleteI am interested in the point you made that the conversation in the article and how people asked and discussed and answered questions changed the direction of the conversation. You pointed out that as a moderator of a book club you would have to be careful and control the flow of topic. We got some practice doing this in our book club groups. However, the people in those groups also could tell when they were getting off topic. They are our colleagues. When reading your blog I got the sense that doing that for a group of patrons would be much harder. Or at least that’s how I think I would feel. The question is how do you gently guide your group back to the discussion topic at hand? I have some idea, but I’ll just have to get more practice... with real patrons.
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