Friday, October 5, 2012

Potpourri

     Ah, yes. Potpourri. It's the Jeopardy category that pops up from time to time, letting you know that, either the Jeopardy writers just couldn't think of one more category, or, as I like to think of it, they got excited about a bunch of different things and wanted to throw them all in there.
     Well, for this week's blog, I am borrowing from the Jeopardy writers due to my own excitement about a bunch of different ideas, reflections, and experiences I've had lately due to my most recent readings, research, and work in classrooms. Please enjoy the potpourri!

How Cool are Socratic Circles?
     This week, I had the amazing opportunity to help launch the use of Socratic Circles in a fifth grade class. In preparation for this, I decided to take a second look at Matt Copeland's Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High School. I love a lot about this book! The best is how positive Copeland is about students' abilities to maintain a thought-provoking and meaningful discussion. Having seen Socratic Circles function smoothly in a high school setting, I was intrigued to see them in an upper elementary classroom. The discussions were mind-blowing. Not only was the content of the discussions great, but even better was how reflective the students were in terms of how the discussions were going, and what they could do to improve. Granted, there is preparation and instruction that goes into this. But the overall moral of the story? Your students can do this, can do it well, and can learn a lot from these types of experiences. Try it out! 

How Cool is Carol Ann Tomlinson?
     Okay, I know I'm getting into a little bit of hero worship here, but, seriously, she's just great. I just finished her book on Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom and it is a must read for anyone who needs to take their own pulse on how they feel about the philosophy of DI. The best chapter (although it's really hard to choose one!!) has to be chapter three, in which Tomlinson writes about how to invite students to be a part of the vision of DI. What makes this the best chapter, arguably, is that most other books on DI seem to ignore this, allowing for the reader to assume that students will just automatically go along with a differentiated classroom. Tomlinson's points about developing a classroom community that embraces the DI philosophy are spot on. In order for this to work, why wouldn't we involve our students as part of the plan?

How Cool are Teachers?
     As an instructional coach new to the job, I have been and continue to be inspired by the number of teachers in my new district who have reached out to me in order to collaborate on trying something new in their classrooms, or on reaching certain goals they have set for themselves as teachers. What an amazing profession of lifelong learners! What amazing role modeling for our students. 

4 comments:

  1. I like what you said about Socratic Circles. I agree! They are a wonderful way to allow students to have a conversation about what they are learning. When I was introducing a literature lesson last week to my eighth grade students, I told them we would be comparing Joaquin Miller's poem, "Columbus," to Jane Yolen's picture book, Encounter. They had just read Yolen's book and watch a video in their social studies class about the encounter of Columbus with the Taino people. The class became quite animated in their response to the question, Was Columbus a villain or a hero? I am thinking that a Socratic Circle next week would be a good way to wrap-up the lesson after they read the poem.

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  2. Nancy -- Totally! What a great opportunity to "capitalize" on students' interests in order to facilitate the learning of discussion skills via participating in Socratic Circles. Have you done Circles with them yet this year? Will they need a bit of a review/refresher course on how Circles work? It sounds great -- let me know if I can help.

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    2. I have not introduced my students to Socratic Circles yet this year. Since they just finished participating in jigsaw discussion groups, this is a good time to show them another way to let their voices be heard. Let's talk about some ideas for getting them started!

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