The Skillful Teacher

Quotes to Affirm and Challenge
This exercise is designed to make it easier to begin discussions
that are grounded in students’ prereading of an assigned text. Stu-
dents are asked to bring to class two quotes they have chosen
from a text they have read to prepare for the class. One quote is
chosen because the student wishes to affirm it. The other is one
the student wishes to challenge. Students form small groups, and
each member takes a turn to propose the quote they wish to
affirm and the reasons for doing this. The quote does not have to
be defended as empirically true. Sometimes a participant will pro-
pose a quote because it confirms a point of view she holds or
because it supports what her intuition or experience tells her is
accurate. Sometimes she feels the quote states the most impor-
tant point in the text, or she chooses a quote because it contains
a crucial new piece of information or different perspective. At
other times the quote is affirmed because it is rhetorically rous-
ing or expresses an idea so lyrically. When everyone in the small
group has proposed a quote to affirm, the group then chooses one
to report back to the larger class. During this whole class discus-
sion, each group explains why it was that they chose the partic-
ular quote they did.
The quote to challenge activity follows the same procedure only
this time students choose a quote that they disagree with, find con-
tradictory, believe to be inaccurate, or consider reprehensible and
immoral. The quote to challenge is then reported back to the class
along with the rationale for its choice.
Getting Students to Participate in Discussion
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