Dare to Seminar?

   My English class had a seminar last week. In case you didn't know, a seminar is basically a class discussion where each person must speak twice and speak up when you disagree with someone else. We all sat in a circle and as a class answered the question. "Who is the second most important character in the Catcher in the Rye?"

The start was kind of awkward, so I spoke first.  I really didn't want to be the first one to speak, but I did anyway to try to get my speaking part done. It was probably obvious, but I didn't really know what to say or how to start. After Chelsea, Mackenzie, and Josiah spoke about my point and added their own view, I felt a little better. Then, everything started running smoothly and everyone else started to speak up.

Overall, I liked the seminar style a lot more than other discussions. It truly felt student-run. My class also didn't get into a debate (thank goodness ) and we were respectful towards opposing opinions. Other than the awkward beginning, I thought that the seminar was fairly easy, the only hard part is actually getting your two points out there before the time runs out. That is where my class may be a little too nice. Three people will start to say something at the same time and all of them will say, "Sorry, you first." and then there's a good three minutes of silence or a small chat on who will go first. I mean, I am one of those people, but I feel like for the next seminar (there better be one, Scalia) we should figure out something (I don't exactly know what) for that situation.