Guidelines for Developing A Study Guide and
Leading A Class Discussion
1. Plan meeting times outside of class. You will need to meet outside of class to prepare your study guide and discussion.
You may consider an initial meeting in person and then follow up online in the class chat room. Plan to meet at least twice
to develop your study guide and finalize your preparations, and expect to spend at least 2-6 hours outside class time.
In addition, each group needs to meet with me outside of class. I am available during my regular office hours and by
appointment. It is your responsibility to contact me and arrange a time to meet. Allow for 15-20 minutes to go over your
plan. If it not possible to meet with everyone in your group, you need to arrange for representatives from each group to
meet with me.
2. Leading a class discussion is not giving a presentation. For this assignment, you are facilitating and leading a
discussion over your essay topic and not just explaining your study guide. You are engaging the members of your audience
and need their interaction.
3. Keep your time frame in mind. You have 20-25 minutes for your discussion. Set time markers (amounts of time you
want to allow for each activity) within your discussion.
4. Everyone participates equally. As you read your essay, think about the following tasks your group needs to accomplish:
A. Generate a list of 4-6 key terms with definitions in your own words. You can consult a dictionary, but the
definition should be your own and fit with the term’s use in the essay.
B. Write a paragraph that describes the author’s main point(s) or thesis. This should be developed but not longer
than five or six sentences. In other words, think of this as an abstract or short summary of the article.
C. Write a paragraph that details the author’s support for his/her thesis. Briefly, you do need to present specific
examples showing how the author supports the essay.
D. Create 2-3 essay questions that do the following:
i. Ask the writer to define, describe, or explain a specific part of the author’s claim.
ii. Compare this position to another essay’s claim to see how or how not the authors’ ideas support each other.
iii. Your questions need to give the writer clear directions and use key verbs (Principles of English Comp. I, p. 8).
5. Come up with a group plan for creating a study guide. You may choose to work together or separately on different tasks,
but you need to work as a group to revise and edit for clarity and to combine the separate parts.
6. Develop your lesson plan. In addition to the study guide, you are teaching this essay. When thinking about what to
teach, develop a set of goals–what should this lesson accomplish? What are the most important ideas about this essay that
you need to convey?
7. Develop a style of presentation. Think about strategies for holding your audience’s attention and ensuring its
participation. Some possible techniques to consider are:
A. Breaking the class into small groups for a short assigned task and then have groups report their answers to
the class. This should be no more than 1/3-1/2 of your total time.
B. Asking students to write a response to a question about your essay and then asking for volunteers to read their
answers. Make sure to comment on student answers.
C. Asking the whole class to respond to questions and listing their responses on the board, asking students to
elaborate where appropriate.
8. Teaching is a creative process. You may use auditory or visual aides (props of some kind), but these should not be the
focus of your discussion. Showmanship helps create a fun and exciting atmosphere but, finally, doesn’t carry the show.
The point is to get students to focus on the content of your essay, and your job is to create an effective lesson that engages
your students.