This post was interesting in all the different forms of discussion one may hold within a class, however I think it does not take into consideration the fact that in many discussion based classes people don't actually do the reading sometimes, or usually, or ever. While there are dedicated students that will always read the full text and do notes, there are students who have figured out how to get away doing no reading and still being successful in a class.
Due to this, I believe that the fun and successful discussion, while being about the main topic, should have its origins in something less specific than a book; in American Lit I, our teacher would always start a socio/political/economic discussion before and have it lead into the themes of the book as a way of connecting life happening now and the characters that were written about a few hundred years ago.
For example, we talked about trans-rights and language surrounding LGBTQ+ people for "Mountain Charlie", a womxn who we determined was not on a hard edge of the gender spectrum, but lived somewhere in between. We were able to connect that while these ideas were not as common nor did the language exit for them, people were still on the spectrum of being transgender in every sense of the word.
I also found "designated discussion" days in high school and middle school to be pointless and awkward as well; rather, I found it more beneficial to have consistent discussions throughout classes and semesters rather than a specific day to have a "socratic seminar"
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