Anth 213D Cultural Anthropology

Spring 2009

Discussion Leading

The overall objective of discussion leading is for you to take the reins for half a period and try to move the class through what you consider the most important “take-aways” of the reading for that day: What are the essential points, themes, arguments? What, really, should we learn from that reading?

To help you prepare for discussion leading, keep the following guidelines in mind.

Discussion sessions will have two main parts:

1. The first should be some kind of summary of the important themes, concepts, points, and arguments that present themselves in readings, lectures, and videos. Your group should not feel itself responsible to name all of those themes, concepts, etc. The group, rather, should conduct a “meeting of the minds” to come up with a set of them. That meeting can take place face to face, via email, or the group can divide the labor by chapter, if more than one chapter will be considered during the class meeting in question.

So, this summary should present the set of themes to the class for consideration. It may be most effective to go about this presentation theme by theme. That is, summarize one theme by stating it and making some observation(s) about it, and then let’s start a discussion about it. When we seem “finished” with it, we can move onto another theme. It would be less effective to list all themes and then say, “So, what do you think?”

2. The second part of discussion leading should involve questions correlated with the themes. A natural way to begin a discussion of a theme is precisely by asking focused questions about it. Why do I say “focused?” It is better to be concrete than vague, or too open-ended. For example, one question one might correlate to the general theme of language learning and evolution might be, “How does Burling argue that human language did not evolve from non-human primate communication?” Please feel free to ask how the themes in the course material might be linked up to our own experience. It is always good to set what we’re trying to learn via readings alongside what we see in our own lives.

Please be prepared to lead discussion for half a period (~ one hour). This may seem a long time, but believe me, it is not. We will always have more to talk about than we have time for. Every member of the discussion leading group should participate by stating themes, making comments, and/or asking questions. And for those of us not in the leading group: attendance will be especially important on discussion days. And come to class prepared to contribute. It is stressful to try to lead a discussion and not get any feedback. So help out your classmates. When it comes your time to lead discussion, you will appreciate it when they return the favor.