Among the challenges we face in the undergraduate classroom are getting students to work actively with literary texts, to contribute meaningfully and purposefully to class discussions, and to develop the skills necessary to construct arguments and support these arguments with direct textual evidence either verbally or in writing. I’d love to write here that I have solved these conundrums, but, alas . . .

I have, however, found an in-class exercise that addresses these concerns: the use of Discussion Questions. In what follows, I will explain how I use discussion questions in my courses, regardless of the level of the course, and the benefits and opportunities that this approach offers.

Before class, I generate a series of “chunk” questions as part of my preparation. Each of these questions consists of many smaller questions and includes a task that students must complete. Especially in my experience teaching non-majors here at Stony Brook, it can be challenging to get students to speak to one another, or even to address one another by name, not to mention getting them to volunteer their interpretations. This exercise eradicates these worries because it requires students to work collaboratively. At the start of class, I distribute the complete list of questions so that all students have all of the questions. Next, I divide the students into smaller groups, usually consisting of four to six students, depending on the size of the class. Each group is assigned a particular discussion question and is responsible for completing all of the tasks required in the question and for presenting their findings before the end of class. I tailor these discussion questions to the skill we are currently developing in class—narrative technique, character development, genre, or thesis development, for example.

James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (1956)

SAMPLE DISCUSSION QUESTION A: Narrative Technique

Describe David’s dual role as both narrator and protagonist in Giovanni’s Room. What effect does this narrative point of view have on our reading of the novel? Where and how does David situate himself in relation to the other characters? What is gained through Baldwin’s decision to employ a first-person narrator? What is lost? Point to at least four passages in your analysis.

SAMPLE DISCUSSION QUESTION B: Character Development

Throughout Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case,” the title character lies, steals, and runs away. How do we, as readers, respond to these actions? Do we judge him? Do we accept him? Do we understand why he does these things? Why? Why not? Using at least four direct references to the text, construct an argument that considers how Cather manages to create a protagonist who admittedly behaves badly but who still manages to appeal to the readers’ sympathies.

SAMPLE DISCUSSION QUESTION C: Genre/Form

Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006)

What does the form of the graphic memoir allow Alison Bechdel to do/achieve that the other writers studied this semester could not because they work only with prose? The clear exception is Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: how is Fun Home’s use of illustrations different from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’s inclusion of images? Identify at least three advantages of this form; for each advantage to think of, be sure to have at least two specific moments from the text that illustrate this advantage.

SAMPLE DISCUSSION QUESTION D: Thesis Development

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850)

What kinds of knowledge are at play in The Scarlet Letter? Who possesses WHICH kinds of knowledge? Which types of knowledge seem more powerful? Less powerful? Why would Hawthorne include so many different types of knowledge/ modes of understanding in The Scarlet Letter? Craft a thesis statement that offers an argument pertaining to how and why Hawthorne develops these different types of knowledge. Support your thesis statement with at least three moments from the text (direct quotations).

Each of these sample questions requires students to engage directly with the literary text and with each other. These questions also offer you, the instructor, a way into the text using the students’ actual contributions. Of course, you will have your own thoughts on these questions, and you will have pre-selected passages that address the concerns brought up in each question. However, this exercise allows you to use the passages the students find noteworthy or interesting as a bridge to the passages you already planned to discuss that day. As students work through these questions, I move between the groups, offering suggestions and direction. These interactions are incredibly useful because they allow me to work more directly with students, particularly students who might be less inclined to participate during full-class discussions. These short conversations are also a productive way to gauge student understanding of the text and their level of preparation. Often, these interactions reveal more than a reading quiz can.

Once I have a sense that the group has, mostly, answered the discussion questions and/ or are growing restless, I will call the class back. I have found that paying particular attention to sound and volume helps in deciding when to call the class back: a lot of talking reveals engagement with the material or that the group has gone off topic; silence suggests they are finished or completely lost. We then work through each question, with a majority of the speaking coming directly from the group responsible for that discussion question. My role now is to moderate student responses, to ask for clarification, and to suggest alternate arguments or additional passages that support their claims. By using this pedagogical approach rather than, for example, lecturing, learning becomes student-centered and active. As the semester progresses, I have often found that students arrive to class better prepared because they recognize that they owe something not only to me but to their classmates as well.

Overall Goals and Usefulness of This Approach:

• Promotes higher-order thinking
• Casts students in the active role with the instructor serving as a guide and a reference
• Fosters a sense of community among both small groups of students and the class as a whole
• Offers students a sense of ownership and mastery of the literary text
• Moves the discussion of the text directly to those passages that students find interesting and/ or significant
• Models the sort of arguments and analyses students are expected to produce in their formal written work in a low-stakes environment
• Helps the instructor to develop exam questions and essay prompts
• Allows the instructor to gauge student understanding