Technical Stuff in Discussions

So, right now doing prose I'm having them read two stories per week. We usually spend some time discussing each story and I usually try to link it up in some way to whichever technical/crafty aspect I'm talking about that week. For example, we read "The Man Who Knew Belle Star" and first I had us plot the story arc and ways tension was raised throughout the story. Then we discussed what the characters "wanted" a bit, and then I gave a brief lecture about dialogue and pointed to some examples in the story where different sorts of dialogue were in use: “no dialogue,” in which characters are in many and various ways saying “no” to each other, dialogue in which characters contradict themselves at every turn, dialogue in which the characters are talking “at” each other instead of “to” each other, dialogue in which characters battle for power, etc. I'm basically wondering if you guys structure "lessons" around your readings and/or think it's a good thing. It's a lot of planning on my end and it's hard to gauge how much the students are getting out of it. Maybe I should trust them more, that we'll have productive conversations about the stories without so much structure?? Maybe the craft-talk intimidates them?