Something that I included over the past two semesters that I excluded this semester was a regimented class discussion component. By ‘regimented,’ I mean that I made it an explicit point in the design of the semester and syllabus to include discussion sessions once every one or two weeks. The participation and assignments from discussion days were seperate from participation and assignments from non-discussion days. At the end of the Fall semester, I was feeling like the system I had in place was too rigid, so I replaced it with a non-regimented, but large participation component of the grade that I could use how I wished, when I wished. The intent was to give me the freedom to tailor the conduct of the class from day to day, based on the discussion and needs of the students. However, this created the affect that I would often put off small discussions while I was wrapping up a lecture on something else. However, when I start the day by speaking about one thing, almost in all cases the lecture morphed into a large discussion, and the large discussion dominated the hour. This had the result of nearly eliminating the small group discussion componenet of the class.
Despite the relative lack of freedom that the former method brought about, I think that the overall goods were greater than the alternative. Starting this summer and continuing, probably forevermore, I will re-regimentalize the small group discussion component of the class. I should note that by ‘regimental,’ I do not imply a military level of organization. There is still quite a bit of freedom: in fact, the regimenting protects the time of the small group discussion so, in the end, the students acquire more freedom.
Edited
Natural Causes 