To teach to your group, you should develop three to five (3 to 5) questions and plan to lead the discussion on your essay. For sample questions, see below:
Go to our discussion groups page and log into your own group. Make up at least 3-5 questions on the essay you are to teach. Label them "Questions on 'Examsmanship'" or "Questions on 'How We Listen'" or "Questions on '[fill in name of your essay here]'" so that the rest of your group will know which questions to answer.
If you are having a hard time coming up with questions, you could always begin with generic questions, such as "What is the thesis of this essay?" , "How does the author support his thesis?" , "How has the author arranged the arguments and why?", "What concrete support does the author provide?" , or "What has the author done to create interest in his topic?" There may be questions you don't know the answer to which you would like to hear about from your group; for example, I have never understood why Golding included the section about meeting Einstein in his "Thinking as a Hobby" so I always ask that question to each class. Or perhaps you have noticed the author's use of metaphor or analogy and want to draw your group's attention to this device. Or perhaps there is something which you thought was clever which drew you out of the essay into your own life. For example, you could ask if anyone in your group had known of other students who succeeded by "bulling" or how someone else might arrange the 3 statues of the Thinker, Venus, and the leopard, or how someone might explain the sensuous, expressive, and technical levels of baseball or some other activity. Feel free to ask questions which are open ended, with perhaps no correct answer. But also ask questions that will help others in your group understand the essay better.
