107 Student-Led Seminar
A productive student-led seminar requires several contributions from each participant.
For one, it helps to come with questions. Please join the conversation with one question already prepared! Where do you find seminar questions? Pay attention while you are reading to passages that surprise, confuse, irritate, anger, or otherwise interest you. Note your thoughts/feelings/questions (and the relevant passages) clearly in your notes so you can access them in class. Don’t rely on memory! There’s nothing like sitting down in a silent room (or Zoom Meeting) of people who are set the task of creating a productive conversation to make your mind go blank.
Second, you should not expect a “spokes on a wheel” model of discussion with a single participant or the course instructor at the center, moderating your discussion. You are in charge.
To generate meaningful dialogue, therefore, please try to contribute the following to each discussion:
- Pose one question for discussion;
- Respond at least once to someone else’s proposed discussion question;
- Contribute at least one process-oriented comment, e.g. “We seem to have exhausted our discussion of this question, shall we move on? Who has another question to propose?”