Purpose: Meaningful, In-Depth Discussion

The purpose of the Fishbowls is to help our class have meaningful, in-depth discussions of the things we read. In-class discussion often devolves into a sort of tennis match, where the instructor asks a question, and someone gives a short answer, and the process repeats. In our class, I don’t want you simply to answer my questions; I want you to be thinking, discussing, debating, and discovering things together. The Rap Battle will, hopefully, get you guys talking to each other, rather than just to me. Here’s how our Fishbowls will work.

Phase 1: Reading

Our Fishbowls will almost always be focused on a text that we read outside of class, so the first part of the competition will actually happen at home, on your own time. Be thinking about the upcoming Fishbowls as you read. Take good notes on the writer’s ideas, highlight and annotate the text, and make note of ideas or quotations that you find interesting, important, or potentially useful. The Reading Journal questions will likely give you a hint about where the discussion might be heading.

Phase 2: Prep

Once we get to class, before the competition starts we’ll have some time to prepare ourselves. I’ll present you with the discussion prompts for the Fishbowl , and you’ll have some time in small groups to discuss those prompts, to figure out what you might want to say, and to find evidence and information from the text that might support your ideas. At the end of our prep, each group will choose one person to send forward into the Fishbowl to represent the group.

Phase 3: The Fishbowl

The name of this activity comes from the way the discussion will be set up. At the front of the class, we’ll put together a few desks to make a small group. The representatives from each of our original groups will sit in that group, and the rest of us will watch them—like fish in a bowl.

Representatives will bring their notes (but not the text itself) to the center table. During the Fishbowl, only the students at the center table are allowed to talk, with one exception: at a representative’s request, or when it seems relevant to a speaker’s point, group members may raise their hand to support their representative with a quotation from the text.

The Fishbowl itself will be a competitive discussion between the representatives at the center table. The representatives will discuss the reading (and the discussion prompts), and I’ll keep score. I’ll be awarding points as defined below based on what I hear and notice as I listen. My scoring won’t be perfect, but it will be final. (There’s no booth review here, folks.)

The points earned by each representative will count for each member of their group. The Syllabus specifies semester-long goals for achieving points in Fishbowls.

Scoring

Representatives: earn points by asking questions and making arguments that move discussion of the prompt forward. Your team can help you do this by offering quotes from our readings, but you must make those quotes meaningful.