Five Guidelines for Shared Inquiry™ Discussion
These guidelines, observed by Great Books discussion participants of all ages, will help your group have focused and lively conversations about the selection.
Read the selection carefully before participating in the discussion. If participants have not read the selection, they cannot support their opinions with evidence from the reading or respond to other participants’ ideas about the selection.
Discuss only the selection everyone has read. This will give everyone an equal chance to contribute, as all participants in the discussion will be familiar with the discussion topic. By keeping the focus on the selection, no one is excluded and the discussion does not drift off on tangents about personal experiences or film versions of the selection.
Support your ideas with evidence from the selection. Discussion is more rigorous when participants back up their ideas. And students' reading comprehension and critical-thinking skills are improved when they're expected to analyze the selection carefully. The Shared Inquiry method helps students learn to go beyond just agreeing with a classmate or discussion leader as they explain their reasoning and link it to evidence in the selection.
Listen to other participants and respond to them directly. Shared Inquiry discussion is about the give-and-take of ideas, a willingness to listen to others and to talk to them respectfully. By directing comments and questions to other group members, and not always to the leader, participants will find discussion more spirited and dynamic.
Expect the leader to only ask questions. It may feel strange not to tell participants what the selection means, but discussion is about helping participants develop their own ideas about meaning. Asking questions helps show students that you, too, wonder about the selection’s meaning—that you do not have a specific answer that you are waiting to hear.
Your own intellectual curiosity about your participants' ideas and about the literature itself is the foundation for leading a strong discussion. Posing interpretive questions about which you have genuine interest or uncertainty will make you a model of a thoughtful reader to your students; listening and responding to your students with true enthusiasm will encourage them to participate in the discussion.
