Milner, J., Milner, L., & Mitchell, J. (2012). Bridging English. (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Milner, J., Milner, L., & Mitchell, J. (2012). Bridging English, Developing an oral foundation (pp.90-101). (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Probst, R. (2004). Response & analysis: Teaching literature in secondary school (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. pg. 71-100Styslinger, M., & Pollock, T. (2010). The Chicken and the Egg: Inviting Response and Talk through Socratic Circles. Voices from the Middle, 18(2), 36-45. Styslinger, M., & Overstreet, J. (2014). Strengthening Argumentative Writing with Speaking and Listening (Socratic) Circles. Voices from the Middle, 22(1), 58-62.
Fostering Talk Around Literature
Say:
I absolutely love Probst's metaphor about going to the movies. Sometimes as teachers, academics, and lovers of literature, it's easy to get caught up in what we love and think that our passion is shared with everyone. Not that uniqueness is a reason to give up on certain students (because you should never!), but it's important to always center yourself and make sure that even if they forget the sterotypical English qualities of something, that the students will still be able to talk and think critically. This is important whether they are reading The Odyssey or The newest Michael Bay hollywood blockbuster.
Milner, J., Milner, L., & Mitchell, J. (2012). Bridging English, Developing an oral foundation (pp.90-101). (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Probst, R. (2004). Response & analysis: Teaching literature in secondary school (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. pg. 71-100Styslinger, M., & Pollock, T. (2010). The Chicken and the Egg: Inviting Response and Talk through Socratic Circles. Voices from the Middle, 18(2), 36-45. Styslinger, M., & Overstreet, J. (2014). Strengthening Argumentative Writing with Speaking and Listening (Socratic) Circles. Voices from the Middle, 22(1), 58-62.
Fostering Talk Around Literature
Say:
I absolutely love Probst's metaphor about going to the movies. Sometimes as teachers, academics, and lovers of literature, it's easy to get caught up in what we love and think that our passion is shared with everyone. Not that uniqueness is a reason to give up on certain students (because you should never!), but it's important to always center yourself and make sure that even if they forget the sterotypical English qualities of something, that the students will still be able to talk and think critically. This is important whether they are reading The Odyssey or The newest Michael Bay hollywood blockbuster.
"With other subjects the problem may not be so acute, but the teaching of literature must be grounded in the students' responses to the text, so they need the opportunity to articulate those responses" (Probst 73).
Adopting the reader-response theory, whether you personally agree that it is altogether dominant, is important for a number of reasons. The students' productions as they interact with the texts are what give the classroom concepts identity and substance. Probst mentioned "parroted observations" which don't equate to learning and in fact, show that the student failed to test his or herself against the text...so we need to get the kids to really push themselves with questions, with talking!
"One of our goals for the literature classroom is to invite students into the ongoing dialogue about significant issues that is our culture" (Probst 80). Much like the movie analogy suggests, teachers are preparing students for intellectual dialogue- without the assistance of teachers. Thus, it's important to guide the students towards each other and remove the tendencies to follow and agree with the easiest opinions.
"When comments on papers consist of little more than approbation or correction, students come to see them not as part of a dialogue about their writing progress, but as a final, authoritative judgment of their work."
When getting students to interact, teachers may need to rethink and/or redefine what it means to be a teacher (temporarily) in order to get students honestly discussing and reflecting. Like balancing the line of being a students friend with their authority, it can be done. My student comments were actually a point of critique at my most recent internship. Having a conversation about student's writing is extremely important. I need to learn that if this means taking an extra day to grade and comment on papers, then thats ok. Alternatively, short conferencing or tech apps can be used as well.
"As Bleich says, 'feeling precedes knowledge'"(Probst 91).
As cheesy as it sounds, in times of discussions, Socratic circles, and the like, teachers have to be facilitators more than lecturers. It's important to help stimulate students with careful prodding and encourage them to share and reflect.Even with a knockout lessons and frontloading with instructions and guided questions, if the students don't feel comfortable opening up or answering whatever questions that you've come up with, then the reflection and discussion will fall flat. How to do this? "the teacher may find herself talking about her own responses, lecturing...or arguing with the students about their interpretations" (Probst 91).
Teachers shouldn't worry about their classroom weight being diminished from this style of teaching; it should be celebrated when instructors lift student responses up. Furthermore, "the demand that the teacher respect student responses is not a demand that she ignore her own" (Probst 92). We can always serve as models that lead students to their own answers instead of supplying them from us. It's important not to steal a students response or talking time in the classroom-it may be the other opportunity all day to fully reflect and respond.
After completing a story students don't typically 'beg to showcase their knowledge of the book in a voluntary five-paragraph essay, and they certainly don't want to prod, pull, and dissect every square inch of the novel for hidden meaning and symbolism" (Styslinger 36). The chicken and egg analogy is incredibly clever when thinking about this topic. Students cannot talk about a text without also thinking about responses, responses being a means of communication.
Socratic circles are dope; they encourage voice, respect for peers, and structure--all while allowing students to still truly speak their mind. As the articles hint at, they help facilitate meaningful discussion for texts that may be too daunting otherwise. They do need scaffolding though. There are a few great examples of short videos that demonstrate successful models of Socratic Circles on TeacherTube that I would show the class before attempting one. In fact, the scaffolding would probably take more than one entire class period to prepare for. Stys&Pollock discuss how sometimes, even in perfectly executed circles, students still "cling to the text like a life jacket," engaging in superficial discussion (Syslinger 40). Ways to combat this are to reach deeper into the hot button issues that everyone has something to say about, like love or parental relationships.
I appreciate the Oral Tradition article and how it prompts teachers of English to expand their curriculum and classroom to include deliberate talking and listening lessons and activities. Not only is this beneficial for reasons of reflection, textual communication and the like, but it also greatly strengthens classroom community-something that should be important to everyone. Talking leads to community, community leads to better talking, better talking leads to better learning.
Do:
Response Statements are important and asking students to respond to a work for 5 minutes, immediately after they have finished it without dictating form. "no one else will have said anything with which they can simply agree; they will have to being, by themselves, the labor of conceptualizing"(Probst 75). When dealing with quick-write responses, or responses in general, Probst pushes that the more intellectually vague and general ones may be the best to start with in order to stimulate discussions. This is less likely to intimidate or alienate others with specific examples or allusions.
The text goes into detail about numerous ways to discuss a student's writing. I particularly like the idea of small groups focusing on one student's paper/assignment at a time, and the author can only take notes and remain silent while his/her peers are discussing their paper.
Frontloading a Socratic Seminar with VideoResponse Statements are important and asking students to respond to a work for 5 minutes, immediately after they have finished it without dictating form. "no one else will have said anything with which they can simply agree; they will have to being, by themselves, the labor of conceptualizing"(Probst 75). When dealing with quick-write responses, or responses in general, Probst pushes that the more intellectually vague and general ones may be the best to start with in order to stimulate discussions. This is less likely to intimidate or alienate others with specific examples or allusions.
The text goes into detail about numerous ways to discuss a student's writing. I particularly like the idea of small groups focusing on one student's paper/assignment at a time, and the author can only take notes and remain silent while his/her peers are discussing their paper.
I like that your Say/Do addresses the frontloading of a socratic seminar. This was something that was mentioned in the readings but you really broke it down in your lesson plan. When we learn these new methods it is important that we look at how we prepare our students for these activities and it is clear that you have put a lot of thought into this.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Will--we need to encourage 2 types of talk in the classroom--1) learning THROUGH talk and 2) learning TO talk. It's another chicken and egg scenario--we can't have one without the other. Frontloading is truly vital--I get called into classrooms all the time because teachers complain they "can"t" do book clubs or Socratic Circles--they blame the kids constantly--but we always need to look towards our selves first--did we frontload properly? We fail to frontload talk enough, thinking students already know how to do it. But there is a difference between classroom talk and talk outside of the classroom-both are to be valued and we need practice with both. Which makes me think about our ultimate goal as a teacher--what you mention at the beginning of your SAY--what do we really want students leaving our classrooms knowing how to do? Read? Write? Talk? Listen? We need always to keep this in mind--and we have to model our own "thinking through talk" --like you mention above, we can't be lecturers, always perfect "knowing" with our talk--it's okay to flounder through talk sometimes--and make students aware of this process--that way they don't always recognize talk as "knowing" but more as "thinking"--
ReplyDeleteJulian,
ReplyDeleteI must say that your steps to creating a socratic seminar are good. Journal/Warm-up writing assignment that asks the question, “What does sufficient (student) response look like? What does a good movie/album review look like?” Having students open with a specific question is a great way to frontload what they will be discussing in the seminar and also can help you understand where students are in their thinking. I like to use those discussion questions as a way to help me think about what outside resources I may need to bring in to help students with their understanding.