Week 26: Socratic Seminar

I am a little embarrassed by what I am about to say... in my 7 years as an English teacher, I had never held a Socratic Seminar until this past week. Sure, my students engage in class discussions, similar to the Socratic Seminar, but I had never held an official Socratic Seminar. Why? I had never taken the time to really figure out how to run one because, above all else, I didn't think there was any way I'd be able to form a circle of 40 desks - or even an inner and outer circle of 20 desks each - in my classroom. However, it was always something I felt a little guilty about; after all, the Socratic Seminar is a regular activity in most English classes.

This last week, my 11th graders finished reading The Great Gatsby. In my 1st period class, I really focused on making the unit as student-driven as possible: I had the students focus on finding "difficulties" in their reading (as I discussed in my Week 23 post), and our class discussions centered on students sharing out those difficulties, figuring them out in small groups, and then discussing their thoughts with the entire class. All of our discussions were driven by what the students determined as key ideas and questions in the text.

As I thought about preparing my class to write a literary analysis on the text, I was faced with a couple dilemmas: 1) I had to figure out exactly what I wanted my students to write about, and 2) I had to figure out what I could do in 1 or 2 class periods to prepare my students to write.

Originally, I planned for the class to write the analysis on Thursday, but, as I began planning out the details of the week and thinking about some of the things we still had to complete (such as a reflection for a study we are part of), I realized that it would be better if they wrote on Friday. I knew I could put something together in regards to structure of the essay or give them the prompt early and have them create an outline, but, since we've done a lot of writing practice and preparation throughout the course of the year, I didn't really think they needed either of those things, and, more importantly, I felt we still needed one more day to discuss the novel as a whole. As I was planning, I decided a Socratic Seminar made the most sense, and we would just make it work.

I did some research on how to run a Socratic Seminar, and the very first link I clicked on provided me with an entire packet on setting up the Seminar, including questions to ask and handouts for students; it was perfect! (Isn't the Internet wonderful?)

I decided it was probably best to try for inner and outer circles, as opposed to one large circle, so what I really liked about this particular packet was the handout included for students in the outer circle called "Socratic Seminar Discussion Partner Evaluation." Prior to getting into the circles and starting the Socratic Seminar, you have students partner up. (I did this based on where they were sitting in their original table groups.) Then, when you form the 2 circles, 1 partner sits in the inner circle, and 1 partner sits in the outer circle. The students in the outer circle are tasked with paying attention to their partners' participation in the discussion taking place in the inner circle and evaluating that participation using the handout. Halfway through the time allotted for the Seminar, you have the circles switch, so the students in the outer circle have a chance to discuss the topic as well. After both groups have had the opportunity to have a discussion, the partners meet and talk about their participation in the discussions. This type of reflection is extremely beneficial for Socratic Seminars that are held early in the year, because it will help students improve upon their participation in the discussions as the year progresses. Despite the fact that we only have 3 more weeks of school, I still felt as though this particular component of the activity would be useful for my students.

My class finished reading the book on Tuesday, and we discussed the difficulties from the last chapter on Wednesday. At the end of the period on Wednesday, I gave them the handout called "Open-Ended Questions for a Socratic-Seminar," and I asked them to complete the sentence starters to help them prepare for the discussion the next day.

On Thursday, when the students got to class, I went over the norms for the activity. Then, I confessed to them that I had never done this particular activity before because I didn't know how we would make the desks fit. However, I told them I believed they could make it work. I gave them 1 minute to move the desks, and they managed to move the desks into 2 circles in that amount of time; it worked!

I sat in the outer circle with my Chromebook, and I kept notes on the main points and questions that were brought up. The first group in the inner circle was dominated primarily by two voices, but other students were able to contribute as well. Halfway through our time, I had the circles switch, and the second discussion featured more voices than the first discussion. It also ran more naturally than the first discussion; there were a few times during the first discussion when I had to ask them questions to promote further discussion, whereas with the second discussion, I never had to speak up, because the students propelled the discussion along themselves.

In the last couple of minutes of class after we wrapped up the second discussion, I reminded the students that they would be expected to write an analysis the following day. I told them I would post my notes from the Socratic Seminar on Google Classroom, so they could look over them if they wanted to use them in preparing for the writing assignment the next day.

In constructing my writing prompt that evening, I struggled. I wanted to phrase it in a way that would promote student thinking, rather than just a regurgitation of information. I wound up asking them to write an analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald's message in the book, but, beyond that, I left it up to the writers. I offered some guiding questions and some reminders about what to include, but I did not go into specifics. Here is what I came up with.

On Friday, in assigning the analysis, I told the students that I wanted them to try to write for the entire period, as opposed to saying I wanted them to write X number of paragraphs and/or pages. Usually, when I tell them I want at least 5 paragraphs, I get only 5 paragraphs, and some students turn in their assignment within about 20 minutes. Yes, they structure their essay well, but they don't really progress in their thinking. Since I am really interested in their thinking on this assignment, I decided I didn't want my students to worry too much about structure or length. As it was, the first student to turn in his assignment did so only 10 minutes before the end of class, which means he worked for a good 45 minutes prior to turning it in. As I walked around the room during the period, all students seemed to be working the entire time. I have only had a chance to skim a few of the essays they turned in yesterday, so I can't really make a judgment on the final product; however, I was pleased with the process.
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Ease of use: Implementing the Socratic Seminar actually wound up being very easy. If you don't know where to start, I highly recommend that packet that I discovered online. If you don't like the packet I shared, you can just Google "Socratic Seminar" and look through the resources for something you do like.
Would I use this again: Starting next year, I am going to try to incorporate Socratic Seminars on a regular basis - at the end of each unit or even more frequently.
Downsides: You need to make sure students have read and understand the text. By holding the Seminar at the end of our unit, I knew my students already had a good grasp of the text. Also, it takes an entire period, and even then, you might feel as though you have to cut off the conversation because the bell is going to ring. (But, then again, I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing...)
Applications: I feel Socratic Seminars are most appropriate in English classrooms and with higher level students. However, I might just be biased because those are the only places I've seen them take place. If implemented properly, with an appropriate text or topic, I think they could be beneficial in history, science, and even math classes. I also think they are possible with younger students; it might just depend on the group of kids.
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Do you have any resources that you really like to use with Socratic Seminars? If so, please share them in the comments; I'd love to get more material to use in the future.

Week 25: ELD 2 and the 20% Project

A couple of weeks ago, I started the 20% project in my ELD 2 class, and my students are finally at a point where I feel I can write about what we're doing.

First, if you don't know what the 20% project is, you should check out The Tech Classroom's explanation. I had heard about the project at the GAFE Summit I attended back in October (the conference that prompted me to start this blog); at the time, I put it in my brain under "something cool that I should figure out and try sometime," and then, of course, I forgot about it. 

About a month ago, the teacher next door to me mentioned that she is doing this project with her 11th graders, and I thought, "Hey... I forgot about that! I should try it out, too!" I knew I couldn't do it in my English 11 classes right now because I already have too many on-going projects that my students are working on, so I decided to use it in ELD 2. My friend sent me her materials, and I adapted them slightly to make them work for my class.

Week 1: Introducing the Project

Now, I must be honest... I would like to say that I planned everything out, and I knew exactly what I wanted my students to do. I would like to say that I knew exactly how I was going to teach them everything I wanted to do. However, if I were to tell you that, I would be lying. The truth is that after my friend shared her materials with me, I had developed a vague sense of what I wanted my students to do. They would do the project, and they would blog on Blogger. I decided to force them to use Blogger because they all have Blogger accounts through their school GAFE accounts AND because I would be able to help them navigate through any technical difficulties they ran into while blogging. That's about all I had decided in advance. Then, two weeks ago, Friday rolled around, and I realized I had nothing planned for the second period of my ELD 2 block. I knew that I wanted them to do this project, so I decided I would introduce it that day. 

I quickly printed out the description of the project and sample project ideas. I figured it would take about a period to introduce the project, get them to choose topics, and help them set up their blogs - all of which I could handle that day even though I wasn't really prepared.

I passed out the descriptions and project ideas to my students before letting them get on the Chromebooks, because I knew that if I let them get on the Chromebooks first, some of them would be trying to surreptitiously watch videos on YouTube or check Facebook instead of paying attention to what I was telling them. 

After the students choose their topics, I had them get their Chromebooks and set up their blogs. As I assumed, this took the entire period, but I was happy by the end of it all. The students were all on board with the project and had chosen topics of interest to them. The topics they chose include:

• Learning to cook (a few students chose to do this)
• Learning how to draw (a few students chose to do this)
• Painting a mural
• Improving time in running the mile
• Learning how to crochet 
• Teaching someone how to swim/learning how to do the butterfly stroke
• Researching high school depression and anxiety (a few students chose to do this)
• Researching different types of music
• Creating a website about Messi's life and career
• Creating a "how to" video on making videos through a specific app 
• Creating different cakes and cupcakes out of Play-Doh

Week 2: Creating a Plan

The weekend after introducing the project to my students, I came up with a plan for what I wanted my students to do. I created a calendar, laying out all of the days that I would give students to work on the project, and then I created a version of that calendar to give to my students.

On Tuesday of Week 2, I assigned the calendar to my students through Google Classroom. I told them that I wanted them to use the calendar to schedule out what they needed to do in order to complete their chosen projects. I also created and assigned a document to help them figure out what materials they would need to complete the project and where/how they would get those materials. (I chose to create these both through Google Docs, as opposed to Forms, because then my students could easily print them out if they wanted.)

I thought these assignments were straightforward enough, but, unfortunately, I overestimated my students' planning abilities. The majority of my students opened up the documents and then sat and stared at their Chromebooks. My TA and I were walking around explaining and helping individual students, but even then, it was a very tedious process because the kids wouldn't do anything if I wasn't standing right next to them. In fact, this has been my biggest issue with this class throughout the year; when I introduce something new, they sit there, reluctant to do anything, and I literally have to force them to start working. It seems to be a state of learned helplessness. Since they are English Learners, most of them think they don't know what to do, even if they actually do know what to do, so they sit and do nothing. Additionally, they function under the assumption that we don't actually have anything important to do in class because they ask if they can have free-time or if we can watch a movie on a regular basis, despite the fact that I have never given them free-time and I only let them watch a movie once (when half of my class was out for testing). Sigh...

In any case, we got through the calendars and the materials, and, as a result, each student had a general idea of what they needed to do and when they needed to do it in order to finish the project by the end of the year.

In addition, I explained some changes to their on-going Current Event and Watching Television assignments. Throughout the year, they have done Current Event and Watching Television assignments and turned them in every Tuesday and Thursday. They were allowed to read any article they wanted and watch any show they wanted, as long as they were in English. Now that we are doing the 20% Projects, I told my students that I wanted them to use the Current Event and Watching Television assignments to help them do their research; they should be reading information and watching videos to help them complete their projects, and they should write about what they read and saw for their Current Event and Watching Television assignments. As I mentioned above, my students are not what you would call "go-getters;" there's nothing wrong with that, but this can be a problem when you have a long-term assignment you are expecting students to work on on a regular basis. Therefore, I tweaked a couple of our weekly routines to guarantee that my students are at least thinking about their projects on a regular basis. 

On Friday of the week, I had my students create a "Sources" post (I titled this "Sources" instead of "PLN" or "Personal Learning Network" just to simplify the language and the idea of what the post was supposed to include) and write their first blog post. We titled the posts "Week 1 Reflection." In order to support them in this, I put together a list of sample student blogs taken from Linda Yollis' classroom blog. I also created my own sample blog, based on what I want them to do on their blogs. It was a little difficult keeping them all on the same page as I was trying to walk them through creating a post, but, by the end of the period, they had all successfully posted their first blog post! I also managed to show them how to include links, pictures, and videos in their posts, and, most importantly, I had them add me as a reader to their blogs, so I can easily keep track of their progress.

Week 3: Working, Working, Working

This past week was Week 3 of the 20% Project. My kids seem to have fallen into the routine of working on their projects outside of school and doing research for them at least on Mondays and Wednesdays (to turn in on Tuesdays and Thursdays). 

Early in the week, one of my students (the one who is teaching somebody to swim) told me he needed to show me a video for his project. During the break between classes, I watched his video, which was essentially just a photo collage of pictures of him and his friends hanging out at the pool. I had to explain to him that, while it was a well put-together video, it did not show him doing what he said he was going to do for his project. I said that if he really wanted to teach somebody to swim, then his video and/or pictures should document him doing that and not just hanging out at the pool...

On Friday, I had my students do their second reflection post on their progress with their projects. I also showed them how to add information into their "Sources" post, and I walked them through creating an "About Me" section on their blogs. 

My student who is making cakes and cupcakes out of Play-Doh showed me a picture of her progress, which surprised me because she is the student that I have the most trouble getting to do her homework. I guess that just testifies to the whole idea and value behind the 20% Project... If you give them time to work on what they want to work on and what they are interested in, then you will begin to see a change in their work habits.

What We've Done, In A Nutshell:

1. Week 1:
1. Introduction to the project
2. Chose topics
3. Created blogs on Blogger
2. Week 2:
1. Created calendars
2. Created materials lists
3. Researched on Wednesday
4. Set-up "Sources" post on blogs
5. Wrote "Week 1 Reflection"
3. Week 3:
1. Researched on Monday and Wednesday
2. Wrote "Week 2 Reflection"
3. Added sites to "Sources" post
4. Set-up "About Me" on blogs

My Thoughts on The Project So Far...

Right now, I am really glad that I implemented this project with my ELD 2 students. I still have some components of the project that I need to figure out (like what, exactly, I want their final presentations to entail), but everything is going smoothly right now. 

As I said at the beginning of this post, when I first heard about the project, I was intrigued, but I didn't know how to incorporate it into my classroom. I honestly don't think I would have taken the leap if I hadn't gotten the materials from my friend, so kudos to her.

I love the freedom this project gives to students. Also, I love that it incorporates research skills and writing in a way that doesn't feel forced or contrived because the students are doing research that they want to do. The project also allows us to discuss topics like protecting one's identity online and presenting oneself in a professional manner.
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Ease of use: Well, since I just jumped into this project without much pre-planning, I would say it is pretty easy to implement because, once you get going, it is completely student-driven. You do need regular access to computers, laptops, or Chromebooks in order to keep students on track on a weekly basis.
Would I use this again: Yes. If I teach ELD 2 again next year, I will definitely start this from 1st semester. If I am teaching English 11, I will need to figure out a way to fit it in, but I do want to try to do so. I think I need to just say, "I'm going to do it!" and then figure out a way to make it work.
Downsides: You need to dedicate 20% of your class time to letting kids work on the project. If you aren't willing to commit to that, then you shouldn't start the project. Also, as I mentioned, you need regular access to technology.
Applications: Based on the origins of this project in companies like Google and 3M, I think this project could be incorporated in any subject area, at any grade level, and the results will be dependent upon the level of the students.
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Week 20: Doctopus and Goobric with Google Classroom and the UCI Highlighter

Doctopus and Goobric with Google Classroom

This week, my students wrote on-demand essays as their final task for our unit on The Awakening. Since they will have to take the SBAC in a few weeks on computers, I decided that I would have them write this on-demand essay on Chromebooks instead of by hand. 

First, let me point out the one problem I always run into whenever I have my students write on-demand essays on computers instead of by hand:

Yes. That's right. In my first period class, I had 16 students who did not finish and/or turn in the assignment. When I have my students write on-demand essays by hand, they do not leave unless they turn in their essay, which means I get work from all of my students. Fortunately, in this case, I can see what those 16 students worked on because all the files were shared with me; however, I still had more than a handful of students who did not write more than an introduction.

In any case, I've started grading the assignments. I decided to try out Doctopus and Goobric, two Google Add-ons that help by auto-generating a class spreadsheet and connecting a rubric to each student assignment.

The first step was to create a blank spreadsheet. Then, I went to "Add-ons" and selected "Doctopus." After selecting the class that I wanted, a spreadsheet that looked like this was created:

It includes all of my students's names and links to their assignments. 

Then, I opened up my rubric through Goobric. (It took me a little while to figure out how to do this, so I decided to watch a couple of videos on how to do it.) Opening my rubric through Goobric linked a rubric to each of the assignments listed on the spreadsheet above. When I open up one of the assignments in Goobric, it looks like this:

The rubric criteria and scores are at the top, and the assignment itself is at the bottom. This allows me to read and grade each essay in one screen. When I'm done, I simply hit "submit," and the scores are automatically saved in the student's copy of the assignment and in the spreadsheet created by Doctopus. In the past, I used to have to make a copy of my rubric for each student and then share it with the student. It wasn't too difficult, but it did add at least 1 or 2 minutes onto grading each assignment. That might not seem like a lot, but it is anywhere from an additional hour and a half to 3 hours of grading when I am working on grading an assignment for my 11th graders. This method cuts all of that time out of my grading. Yay!

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Ease of use: As I said, it took me a while to figure out how to link create the rubric and link it through Goobric. I highly recommend watching some of the videos I linked above on YouTube. Once you figure it out, it is a piece of cake; it's just that you have to format everything correctly in order for it to work.
Would I use this again: Yes. I really like these tools. There is also an option for me to record some of my comments, so I've been creating audio-recordings for each student, explaining what they need to fix. This saves time for me in typing, and I feel like it helps since I am not going to have time to sit down with each student and conference with them about what they need to work on.
Downsides: I don't really see any downsides with the Goobric and Doctopus, aside from having to be sure you have the formatting correct. Also, if you want to create an audio-comment, you need to make sure you don't have a two-year-old talking about who has a penis and who doesn't have a penis in the background...
Applications: You could use this for any assignment you have students turn in through Google Classroom that you use a rubric to grade. I think you can use these tools without Google Classroom as well, but then you would have to put the information into the spreadsheet yourself.
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UCI Highlighter

This is a tool I learned about through some of the professional development I'm part of this year. It is a website that lets students highlight their essays and automatically calculates how much of the essay is summary, commentary, and evidence. I found the tool extremely helpful in talking to my students about how they should not just be summarizing in their essays.

In order to use the tool in class, I gave my students handouts with a sample introduction, body paragraph, and conclusion from an essay I wrote in college. As a class, we worked through underlining the introduction. We used yellow for summary, green for evidence, and blue for commentary. As you can imagine, most of the introduction was either yellow or blue. Then, I had them work in groups to underline their body paragraphs. Once they finished their body paragraphs, I had them nominate a group member to get a Chromebook and go to the UCI Highlighter website. In order to log in, all they had to do was go to www.ucihighlighter.com and then type in "lewis comparison" in the box. (This was the name under which I created the sample assignment.) They then found and highlighted their sample paragraph in the longer essay. Like Google Docs, each student's screen updated in real-time, so they were able to see what the other groups were highlighting. After every group finished, it looked like this:

We talked about the percentages over on the side.

They noticed that "Commentary" had the highest percentage, followed by "Evidence." They also noticed that there wasn't very much summary. 

As a follow-up to this activity, I am going to have them highlight the essays that they just wrote to see where they fall in these different categories. The goal is to get them away from summary and into using evidence to support their commentary. 

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Ease of use: This was extremely easy. The only kinks we ran into were when students misspelled "highlighter" or did not enter "lewis comparison" correctly.
Would I use this again: Yep. As I mentioned above, I am going to do another activity this week using the same tool.
Downsides: The website doesn't keep the formatting, so I had to go through and make sure my paragraphs looked okay.
Applications: Writing and revising essays
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Bonus!

Inadvertently, I made a discovery with the comments in Google Docs. I have always been a little annoyed that you can't bold, underline, or italicize words in the comments. Therefore, in order to add emphasize to one of the words in one of my comments, I put stars around the word. When I posted the comment, it turned bold! Look:

So cool!