1. What are the elements that will contribute to the success of your student-led discussion? Good preparation is vitally important. It has to consist of not only of reading the case and familiarizing myself with new vocabulary, but also of thinking about a topic in advance and making some research. Preparation also includes analyzing the case to iron out any irrelevant problems and inconsistencies that may present distractions for the participants.
2. How creative do you think you can be with this discussion? What other types of activities might you do in your discussion? I’ll try to be as creative as I can. I hope to find interesting details about an issue in order to provide my peers with additional information that will make them think from different sides. For instance, playing a small part of the movie related to the topic seems to be a good idea. It will be useful to create different hypothetical situations and ask the participants for solutions. Asking them to create convincing arguments against their own opinions can also give them worthwhile challenges.
3. How much thinking on your feet will you need to do? That is, how much will you -be able to rehearse? It will involve quite a lot of spontaneous thinking, but with adequate preparation it should be possible to get it to balance to about 50/50. As part of achieving this, it will be important to keep in mind that the participants should be gently led, but not persuaded. I must make sure that my preparation deals with potential troubles without getting in the way of the content of the discussions.
4. How do you plan to stick to time limit given? Part 1: Warm-up – max 5-7 minutes (Handout definitions to be given.) Part 2: Case study – 10 minutes (Type table before class with key players, key issues and key problems, then ask students to name them. Table will then be distributed.) Part 3: Role Playing/Opinions – 25 minutes. Part 4: Summarizing – 3 minutes. Total: about 45 minutes.
5. How comfortable do you feel with this type of assignment? When I heard about that assignment for the first time I experienced a significant amount of confusion, but now I feel absolutely fine about it because of the experiences and conclusions that I and the other students have related to each other.
