Hist. 217: The Age of the Renaissance
Laurel Carrington

Panel Discussion Exercise

For this first exercise, I am dividing the class randomly into groups of four to five people each.  The assignment will be to do a structured discussion of the homework questions for that day. The homework questions will provide the framework for the discussion; each of you should be prepared to talk about all of them as a group. The discussion should progress as follows:

• I will introduce the panel to the class, after which I will turn the discussion over to the group.
• One of you should take the role of informal discussion leader. Your job will be to pose questions, move the discussion along, and ask people for input.
• Discussion should ideally flow easily from one to another. To do this well, you should rehearse a bit in advance.
• Each of you should participate for approximately the same amount of time; in other words, no one should hog the discussion, nor should anyone hold back and just chime in once or twice.
• While you may prepare with notes, I do not want you to read from a text.

In your discussion, pretend you are in front of a T.V. audience for an educational program, which means be on your best behavior.  You need not act as if you’re meeting royalty, but you shouldn’t be too casual either.  Come in dressed for the part. You should expect to have one meeting with other members of your group in advance of the day your group is scheduled to discuss in class. The following are some suggestions for your meeting:

• Establish your purpose together. Review the assignment and make sure you have a shared understanding of what the assignment should accomplish for you and for the rest of the class.
• Get acquainted with your readings and questions together.
• Get acquainted with the other members of your group. 

In preparing to speak, you should consider these points:

1. Pace yourself well. Students often make the mistake of talking too fast, and making themselves less than intelligible. Practice with your group to get an idea of how effectively you're communicating.

2. Get a sense of how you do when you're in the gaze of other people. You first need to develop an awareness of how your body responds: does your mouth go dry? Do you get fidgety, or red in the face? Second, you need to see you your brain responds: do you forget everything you thought you were going to say? Do you have trouble getting words out? Develop some strategies for coping; for example, those who blush should be prepared to keep their attention focused on the task rather than on what is going on with their faces; fidgety types should avoid wearing jewelry or handling pens; people whose brains get scattered should be prepared with clear notes.

3. Watch out for filler type words, such as y'know, like, um, uh, and whatnot.

4. Adjust the volume level of your voice. If your voice tends to be soft, you're going to have to work to speak up.

5. Check out your posture: don't slump over; be alert yet not at military-style attention.

6. Make eye contact with whomever you are addressing, whether it's in response to an individual's question or comment, or a contribution to the group as a whole.

7. Do not look on this as a performance, but as an act of communication.

At the end of your discussion, which should last from 12 to 15 minutes, I will ask for questions from the class, so you who are looking on should be prepared to participate. You may address your questions to the group as a whole or to an individual who has made an interesting point on which you'd like some elaboration.

Laurel Carrington carringt@stolaf.edu
Most recent update: January 20, 2012

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