I confess to sometimes exaggerating differences to spark discussion and to draw more students into it. As the semester progresses, the undergraduates get more familiar with the material, more comfortable with one another, and with me, so the questions get longer. Students make reference to earlier readings and to issues raised in other courses. The students are, of course, present, so if they mislike my oral editing they are free to speak up and denounce it. They often do, but usually couch their objections diplomatically.
Students benefit from the questions in five ways.
First, they tell me in their course critiques, it forces them to focus their reading. Knowing that they have to come up with a written interpretation of what they read, they aggressively look for themes, agreements, and disagreements in their assignments. Second, this leads them to approach the readings at a number of different levels as they examine the facts, scrutinize arguments, and look for theoretical assumptions. Students are also good at calling attention to disciplinary blind spots. Third, the questions enable students to examine the relationship between the readings and comments made by seminar members.