Everyone in the class will have read the assigned reading prior to your discussion leader responsibilities.
I encourage you to examine B.G. Davis' (1993) "Leading a Discussion" chapter in advance. The Davis chapter is from her text titled, "Tools for Teaching" published by Jossey Bass. It's not a required reading in this course, but readily available and on reserve at the AL/ESL main office. It is an excellent resource.
Collaborate with anyone who might be working with you.
Here is a link to some university-level "Teaching Suggestions" made available through the University of Nebraska (some may be useful for our purposes).
Contact me (e.g., visit my office) to gain access to any office file materials I may have connected to your assigned reading(s). For most of the reading assignments this quarter, I can provide a rather extensive set of written discussion leader materials produced by previous members of this course. Once I pass a file to you, you are welcome to use it as you see fit. I only ask that you return the original set of materials to me intact and with the addition of any original materials you made decide to produce on your own. An effective first step to accomplish this is to simply photocopy the complete set of previous materials when they are initially placed in your possession.
If you are working with one of the H. D. Brown text chapter , be sure to examine the internet website tied to a website-based quiz on the chapter (see course syllabus for the links; if such a quiz-site is available).
Bring to class a sufficient number of some sort of a handout (required) to help focus our attention.
You might give us an pre-discussion assignment/task toward the end of the class immediately preceding your planned contribution. These should not be time-consuming but you could use them as a basis for starting your contribution off on the right track.
Once our E-Mail discussion list is up and running, you could post some pre-discussion topics for us to be thinking about ahead of time.
Initiate your contribution with some sort of a summary-review activity. At this point, try to focus our attention on the reading's content.
Plan some sort of an application activity/task.
You are welcome to incorporate within your allotted time slot such options as a panel discussion at the front of the room; dyadic, small group, larger group, and whole class configurations; straight lecture delivery; an interactive game focused on the themes of the reading; an illustration through micro-teaching; a role-play, etc.
Plan ways to make efficient use of the discussion supports included in the chapters or journal articles. For example, you may plan ways to focus our attention and engage us in an application activity if the authors provide any one or more of the following:
b) discussion starters at the end of a reading,
There are several models of student handouts included in your course packet. See, for example, course handouts #86a-86d and 87a-87c.