More Effective Format

Jeremy1952 · Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 11:28 am Post subject: More Effective Format

Chris has asked about a discussion leader for "Lies", and I've been giving a lot of thought to the last book I discussion-led (Atheist Reader), which crashed and burned; Red Queen, which is a wonderful book but not getting a whole lot of activity; and what we can do and where to go to jump-start this whole process.

I think we need to move toward an academic model in our discussions. Not as strict and formal as a class, of course; but we need something like a syllabus and the discussion leader needs to act more like a teacher (or facilitator). Everyone is reading the books at different paces and different times; there is nothing wrong with this, but it is not conducive to discussion.

Here's my recommendation. Someone… Chris; discussion leader; person who recommended the book… should put together a "syllabus". Week one, we "cover" chapters 1 through 4; week two, devoted to chapter 5; skip chapter 6; etc. Not blindly and mathematically, but with a sense of how much material is in the chapter and how relevant it is to BookTalk. For example, when Ridley covers the exact same material that Pinker already covered, it may not be worth as much time. If Ridley contradicts Pinker, or raises a topic that should be controversial (he defends the "wage gap"; Ridley states that women are being paid correctly at average 2/3 what men are paid, and nobody raised a stink!) then we should plan more time on that chapter or section.

The nature of BookTalk is such that there is little downside that I can see. That is, if the group is on chapter 10 and one member has just gotten around to reading chapter 2, and wants to talk about it, there is nothing to stop her from doing so. The discussion leader, on the other hand, would have something to focus on: "We're (not 'I') are on Chapter 6, and Dr author defends Hillary Clinton. But Ann Coulter (insertlinkhere.com) says. . ."

I love book talk and am personally willing to put effort into making it better. This is my idea on where effort can be directed. What do you think?

Science is neither a philosophy nor a belief system. It is a combination of mental operations that has become increasingly the habit of educated peoples, a culture of illuminations hit upon by a fortunate turn of history that yielded the most effective way of learning about the real world ever conceived. E.O.Wilson

Edited by: Jeremy1952 at: 11/8/03 11:30 am

PeterDF · Freshman Joined: 07 Jul 2003 Posts: 214 Gender:

Jeremy

I like the idea of having a thread for different groups of chapters. I tend to blast through a book and although I come out at the other end knowing more than I did before I read it. I couldn't answer questions on which part of the book I read whatever idea I read it in. Your idea would give a feeling of structure to our reading, and I think it might help in understanding what the author was getting at.

Just my thoughts

Peter

LanDroid · Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 7:39 pm Post subject: Re: More Effective Format

We could try a schedule to get things started and keep them moving, but as you say since folks can add to a thread at any time this doesn't seem as important as in a class where you need to prepare for a final exam. On the other hand, perhaps we should consider the author chats as a final exam?

Anyway, I think the main improvement would be for discussion leaders to be more aggressive - not just listing chapters, but asking leading questions and making controversial statements to generate discussion. (I tried, but will admit I wasn't very good at this in the one I led mainly because the book was somewhat over my head...

) Toward that end, it might help (at least on technical books) if the leader had already read the book before the discussion started and volunteered because he or she understands it and is enthusiatic about it.

tarav · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 12:25 pm Post subject: Re: More Effective Format

I like this suggestion. It would give us some direction. I would also feel like I was getting more out of the book if we discussed it in a more exact way. The only catch would be that the leader would have to be willing to get the book read before discussion is to be started. Maybe we could start this syllabus-like discussion at the beginning of the second month.


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