Discussion Tutorial

The Question

Here's an example of a discussion question I have asked in the past:

"Think of a person you know well who often irritates you or whose behavior grates on your nerves (it could be a parent, friend, relative, teacher). Without naming the person, do the following:

1.list that person’s statuses and roles. 2.analyze the person’s possible role expectations, role performance, role conflicts, and role strains. 3.describe what you find in your analysis that could help to explain the irritating behavior?

(Caution: sometimes discussants get caught up in venting about their irritating person and fail to answer the questions that are asked. Please avoid that temptation. Also review the sociological

uses of the terms used in this question.)"

Your Answer

If you're using this tutorial in the first week of class (as I hope you are), you haven't yet learned the sociological uses of the terms in the question, but why don't you take a moment to jot down how you would prepare yourself to answer the question and draft a preliminary response.

The Grading Standard

Assess your response using this rubric that will be used for scoring discussions.

Insider Information!

Before we go on, click this link to discover the category of the rubric that gives students the most trouble.

Huh?!

So you're saying to yourself, "But wait a minute. The Syllabus says,

I will never ask for your opinions. In this class, opinions are irrelevant. (Would you agree with me that people can, and often do, hold opinions on matters about which they know little or nothing? I see you nodding your head. You know somebody like that, don’t you? ) So, what I am interested in is not your opinions, but your informed judgments.

How is my personal response anything BUT an opinion?"

Avoiding the “opinion trap”

Remember from the Syllabus that informed judgments are essentially conclusions based on evidence. For our purposes, they allow you the opportunity to express your own thoughts, but they also require you to support them with some kind of evidence. It's the support that distinguishes them from mere opinion.

You could even skirt the "opinion trap" altogether by focusing on analysis instead.

A Great Example

The ways to tackle the "Personal Response to Key Concepts" component are limited only by your imagination.

Here's an example of one student's masterful approach:

Did you notice….?

Did you notice how she analyzed her own experience using sociological concepts? Did you notice how extensive her analysis was? What fantastic work!

The Question you tried

Now, getting back to the question that you tried...compare your response to this one:

A Couple of Thought Questions:

How would your submission have measured up? What, if anything, would you have had to do differently to produce work of this quality?

A Sample Response/Part B post:

Here's a sample of an EXCELLENT response post.

Let’s assess.

Would you agree that all of these sample posts are thoughtful, substantive, logical, coherent, relevant, and free of unsupported claims? (You'll have to take my word for it that they were on-time .)

Your charge

Now that you have seen the standard of excellence, go forth and prosper (or shall I say, go and do likewise)!

An Exhortation

It is tempting to approach the discussion component of our class in a cursory, dismissive

manner. Instead, I encourage you to devote the same kind of energy and effort to your

discussion question as you would if the question were assigned as a paper to be graded.

Remember that Discussions are worth 100 points--the equivalent of an exam!