Guidelines for Discussion Leaders

1. Do the reading for that session early.

2. Communicate ahead of time with the other discussion leader for your session to decide how to approach the class. (You might each take responsibility for a different article, or you might take opposing sides on an issue the readings discuss, or you might have some other approach.)

3. Take responsibility for initiating and guiding a discussion of your topic on the Blackboard discussion board.  Post an initial message asking some questions, or raising a provocative issue, or defending a position. Then continue to prod the discussion along. The initial message should be sent out the afternoon of the class prior to the session at which you will present.

4. In class the day of the presentation, take approximately ten minutes to present your "take" on the readings for that session.  Guidelines for the presentation:

• You should take some sort of position relevant to the reading. (This might be an interpretation, a critique, a defense against criticisms others might have, or an interesting connection between the readings and something else -- for instance a current issue, something else you've read, etc.) 
• You should not only take a position, but also defend it: explain what your reasons are (why your interpretation is a good one, or why the reading is totally wrong, or . . .). 
• However, you should not use the presentation to summarize the reading.  You should assume that we have all read the material carefully (and we should make certain that your assumption is correct).
• After presenting your "take" on the reading, you should be prepared to guide discussion about the readings. You should have questions to ask and/or ideas to present. Don't be too pushy or dogmatic about this: if the discussion goes in a direction you didn't expect, but it is still relevant to the day's topics, that's OK. On the other hand, if the discussion gets way off-topic or gets silly or otherwise seems to be going astray, try to bring the focus back to the topic at hand with a new question or observation.

5. If you'd like to distribute a handout to the class, please bring it to me no later than 10:30 on the morning of the presentation so I can make copies for the class.  (The day before would be better!)