Tomorrow, I’m going to lead a discussion on the end of a novel we just finished up in my English class. The Spring of my senior year seems a bit late to learn a whole new type of assignment, but here I am–nervous, and with no idea what I’m doing.
Leading a class discussion is much more difficult than leading a class lecture. With a lecture, I know exactly how the class time will run–I can plan out my slides, practice my explanations, and go. Maybe I’ll get stuck with a curveball question, but nothing will ever really be able to ruin–or even change–the general plan.
With a discussion, the variables multiply by approximately 13–one for the each of the students sitting in class alongside me. I can’t anticipate their responses, or whether the questions will inspire thoughtful analysis of the novel. I don’t know which ways the discussion will turn or which new alleyways it might explore, and I have no idea what themes the class will latch on to. I can’t have a plan.
But in another way, that freedom is exciting–I may stumble in my attempts to make the discussion compelling, but I’m also not alone in front of the room. A discussion means a collaboration, which means the ideas can come from everywhere, and we’ll all end the class (hopefully) with a set of viewpoints on the novel that we never would have been able to see otherwise. I’m excited to see what they are.
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