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The Invisible School
Publications Section : xxProfessional JournalThe Seminar Circle 0.1 xxxxNovember 1996The Seminar Circle 0.2 xxxSeptember 1997
The Seminar Circle 0.3 xxxxxxxxxMay 1998
THE SEMINAR
CIRCLE Volume 0, Number 3 : May
1998 Close
Reading: A Lost Art
by Peter
Babb Facilitator
Training: Intermediate
Level by
PGW Socratic
Seminars for Parents
by Jerry
Chris Changing
Habits of Mind: One Teacher's
Journey by
Mary Blizzard Educational
Reform and Socratic Seminars:
A View from
Washington State
by Oscar
Graybill A
Seminar Rubric with Student
Responses
by Susan
Crumpler Public
Workshop on Socratic
Dialogue
by
PGW Some
Are More Equal Than Others
by Greg
John
We hope that this publication continue to
become more and more like a seminar. But with the added dimension,
in this case, that it is a conversation on the practice of
dialogue. And, as in a seminar circle: * We grow by meeting together over
time; * We develop ourselves as
"generalists" by reading a variety of texts by a variety of
writers; * We learn by critiquing the
process. See for yourself. Read these articles and
see if each one doesn't offer some unique insights into this
practice we share. See if you don't learn something from each
one. We hope that others will take this new
development as incentive to write and submit something. No matter
how often you are doing Socratic Seminars (nor how well), if you
are gaining new experience facilitating dialogue, and you reflect
upon what you learn, others of us can only benefit from your
perspective. Let us all work towards a time when the
educational system changes enough that Socratic Dialogue is no
longer an interesting add-on lesson, but a vital and integral part
of the life of every learning community.
A recent experience has caused me to
reflect and to gain some insights into this issue. I assigned a
brief portion of an essay by Emerson to my students, and asked
them to "prepare it for seminar, and then see me for a brief oral
quiz." Only two students found me before the last period of the
day; their preparation was thoughtful and sincere. Then came the
deluge in the last hour of the day. The majority who came in
"prepared" had misread the text and could not explain what words
such as "coach" meant in context, let alone "Stoic." They literally moaned with despair as I
sent them over to a dictionary to look words up. A significant
portion never appeared at all. Finally, the last student to show up
demonstrated a basic understanding of the text. When I praised
her, she told me that the text was "stupid" and that she couldn't
follow it, so she had asked another teacher what it
meant. The text? An excerpt from
"Self-Reliance"! Insight #1: Kids are used to doing
sloppy, hurried reading. How many hundreds of times have they been
asked to answer study questions on a chapter in a dumbed-down
textbook? Now I come along and ask them to read a brief passage
closely. Any Behaviorist can tell us what the response will be.
For the majority of students, close reading is a lost
skill. Insight #2: Sometimes we forget that
basic, literal understanding of the text is a vital third of the
Socratic Seminar triad (text, seminar, critique). When we adults
meet, the majority of us have prepared our text appropriately. Yet
if it's hard work for us, imagine how hard it is for teenagers.
Insight #3: Close reading is a skill that
must be taught. My sense is that it must be taught in conjunction
with seminars, so that there is a clear purpose to the activity.
Even as we work with students on their listening and questioning
skills during seminars, so must we teach them how to read closely
and carefully for comprehension. One student was puzzling on the sentence,
"The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his
feet." He kept demanding that I explain to him what "coach" meant
in this context. After looking the word up, he came back to me,
smiled and said, "If you had told me what 'coach' meant, my brain
would have become the feet." In the months that followed, I became
very aggressive about close reading of texts, and students became
much more proficient. During the time period that I was aggressive
about text preparation and comprehension, the Socratic Seminars
were much less lively. I realized that my close questioning about
the meaning of the text before the seminar made the seminar itself
somewhat anti-climactic. Ultimately, I stopped having formal
seminars during this time period, and allowed students to engage
in debate about the texts. At the same time, I slowly began to be
much less demanding in my close reading "evaluation." This past week we had our first Socratic
Seminar in many weeks (an excerpt from Herbert Spencer entitled
"Man vs. the State"). I asked the students to focus on expressing
disagreement by questioning for clarification. These seminars were
exceptional; students repeatedly made reference to the text, asked
for clarification in terms of the text, and expressed disagreement
by asking questions about portions of the text. Everyone seemed
much better able to focus on the process of the
seminar. Insight #4: It is important to remember
that this process is a spiral of growth, and that the degree of
growth in the various elements (text, seminar, critique) will not
always match evenly. So while at first I had a low level of
comprehension of the text and a reasonably lively seminar, then a
high level of textual comprehension and a bland seminar, and then
a period of a high level of comprehension with no seminars,
ultimately I have very effective seminars that stay focused on the
text. I want to credit Michael Strong's book,
The Habit of Thought: From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice,
and conversations I had with Rick Hoerr, Kevin Cline, and Peter
Winchell for helping me to make these adjustments and gain these
insights. North Bay
Marin School Mill Valley,
CA
Since then, the participants have been
leading classroom seminars and compiling materials for their
portfolios. When we meet in late June for three more days of
seminars and portfolio viewing, Dennis Gray, Michael Strong, and
Oscar Graybill will join us, bringing a broader perspective to
bear on the issues of our professional development as dialogue
facilitators. While there are still a few procedural
questions to settle before we meet on June 29, here is the good
news: It should be easier and more satisfying for any other groups
which care to undertake this work, deepening their practice by
examining it together. Of general interest may be the
specialized texts which we use for this level of training. In the
Introductory Training, it is important to sample as diverse a
range of texts as possible. This demonstrates to all the
participants that the process can be used with any content , with
any subject. But once a group has some experience with
the process , it is beneficial to use texts that pertain to a
field of interest or specialization. So at the Bodywork School,
they dialogue on texts which explore healing modalities, body
psychology, trends in healthcare, etc. A corporate group might
choose to read texts by Demming, Drucker, Senge, or any other
writer with specialized knowledge of their field or
industry. We facilitators can benefit by reading
texts which explore dialogue itself. Thus we read works by Plato,
Adler, Bohm, Senge, and others in the field. Everyone in the
seminar room in December found that the exploration of these texts
deepened our understanding of the nature of dialogue, and
increased our respect for the possibilities inherent in the
practice. And I, for one, can hardly wait until
late June when we meet together to do it again ! Socratic
Seminars West Corte
Madera, CA
While many schools search
desperately for ways to involve parents in their children's
education, the "Parent Socratic Seminar" (nicknamed "The Lyceum"),
draws parents on a voluntary basis to the school library to
dialogue on subjects such as the poetry of Gibran, the art of
Rembrandt, the editorials of the L.A. Times, and the viewpoints of
Dennis Prager. Often, the work under study has been taken directly
from the classroom, as parents enjoy exploring their sons' and
daughters' daytime activities. For many, the Socratic
Seminar format does not come easily. In the work-a-day world,
civil conversation has become a lost art. The practice of
scrutinizing opinions, including one's own, has been forgotten in
the combat zone of competing for profits and raising today's
teenagers. The person who speaks loudest and longest usually wins.
For most, genteel questioning in the pursuit of truth is no longer
a habit of mind. This apparent difficulty
is also a major draw. Parents, for whom self-esteem remains as
important as for any teenager, seem to find particular
satisfaction in hearing other adults incorporate and build on
their opinions, rather than argue. In an age when parent-teen
agreement is nearly impossible, the seminar becomes a welcome
relief. The biggest draw,
however, comes from the richness of the chosen texts. Businessmen
and women relish the opportunity to dialogue on a piece of art or
poetry. Universal questions of ethics, truth, and justice have
not, for most, been the subject of conversation for perhaps
fifteen years -- since the newborn destroyed the harmony of a
young couple with free time to converse. Ever relevant for the
teacher acting as facilitator, readings on cheating, cultural
diversity, and theories of knowledge entertain and enthrall the
parents. Surprisingly,
justification for the teaching facilitator to spend another night
out comes from the growth of the parents -- the same mind
expansion a teacher witnesses with teenage students. Lights go on;
minds open; opinions change. Recently, a normally vociferous stock
broker in his mid-forties, broke his silence after fifteen
minutes: "What I am about to say goes against everything I have
believed for many years. But, damn it, I see your viewpoint and
must admit you are at least half-right...." If having a teen admit
something similar can make the day for a teacher, imagine the
thrill of watching a moment of epiphany in an adult ! Certainly Socrates would
have appreciated this change. Although this parent probably felt
he needed hemlock after making his confession, he typifies what
the Socratic Seminar is all about: questioning, expanding,
growing. One is never too old for
these. Mission
Viejo High School Mission
Viejo, CA
A Journal of Reflection on Our
Common Practice
Highlights
of this edition
Hoo
- rah ! A Journal with Multiple Voices
by
PGW
Hoo
- rah ! A Journal with Multiple Voices
This edition of "The Seminar
Circle" represents a high-water mark in our development. This time
out, we have articles contributed by six of our colleagues, each
one a teacher who leads classroom seminars. Different
facilitators, different schools, different circumstances,
different perspectives.
* We benefit by hearing diverse
voices;
Close
Reading: A Lost Art
In his essay "What is
Enlightenment?", Immanuel Kant provides what can be viewed as a
philosophic rationale for Socratic Seminars. Kant begins by
stating: "Enlightenment is man's leaving his self-caused
immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence
without the guidance of another." It is just this thoughtlessness
that we seek to redress through Socratic practice, yet we have all
encountered resistance from students to intellectual empowerment.
As Kant later states: "It is because of laziness and cowardice
that it is so easy for others to usurp the role of guardians. It
is so comfortable to be a minor ! "
Peter
Babb
"There
are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe
everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from
thinking."
-
Alfred Korzybski
Facilitator
Training: Intermediate Level
A group of twelve facilitators met
in December to begin an Intermediate Level Training. For three
days we held seminars and discussed the contents of a Seminar
Facilitator Portfolio.
Peter
Winchell
"Remember
happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have;
it depends solely upon what you think."
-
Dale Carnegie
Socratic
Seminars for Parents
When Socrates stood
trial 2,500 years ago for corrupting the youth of Athens by
teaching them to think, he probably did not foresee that one day
parents would also be "corrupted" in his name. But at Mission
Viejo High School, where parents pack the library monthly for an
adults-only Socratic Seminar, he has done just that: provided
parents with a rare opportunity to think and question.
Jerry
Chris
"Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof."- John Kenneth GalbraithTop
Then in the summer of 1997, I returned to
graduate school. Without recognizing initially what was happening,
in the first few months of classes I witnessed the difference
between a teaching environment and a learning environment. My
first class fell into the expected mode: a syllabus was handed
out, which included a delineation of course content; the professor
illuminated this content and clearly identified the expected
student outcomes. This teaching methodology is recognizable to
anyone who has taken an instructional methods class. So I
considered the class to be one more in a series of hoops through
which I had to jump before being granted another
degree. The second class I took differed greatly.
Again the professor handed out a syllabus that identified
specifics of the course content; but instead of identifying
specific learning goals and student outcomes, this professor asked
us to determine these goals for ourselves based on their
applicability to our own learning and work. In addition, Dr.
Tucker held each of us in the class accountable for being
committed to our growth as learners. She continually asked us to
examine our commitment to that growth in light of our
participation and involvement in the class. The textbook for this unique learning
environment was Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline (1990). Reading
Senge had all the impact of a spiritual awakening for me. Suddenly
many things that had been only vague abstractions began to
solidify into more concrete possibilities. Senge's book is about how to build a
"learning organization" -- a term schools might well embrace to
define their mission. He doesn't use the term "habits of mind",
but he does speak of a "shift of mind" that occurs within systems
thinking (the cornerstone of his five disciplines). He says that
all five disciplines One of Senge's five disciplines is what
he calls "Team Learning." It is He offers the practice of dialogue as a
method of achieving those results, citing as critical dimensions
the abilities to "think insightfully about complex issues" and to
participate in "innovative, coordinated action"
(p.236). It occurred to me as I read this chapter
that one could think of one's class as a team of learners; the
goal of developing insight into complex issues is a worthy one for
any classroom. Also, for the first time, I began to consider how I
might function with my colleagues as a team whose coordinated
action was the creation of a more effective learning environment
throughout our school. From my experience of being in a class in
which learning was both the expectation and the reward, I knew
that learning environments are vital and energizing. Dialogue
appears to be a tool to accomplish both goals. Senge states that "doing the obvious
thing does not produce the obvious, desired outcome" (p.71).
Despite this observable phenomenon, doing the obvious thing, doing
the ordered curriculum, doing planned and rehearsed strategies are
all built into methods courses on effective classroom teaching.
All are built on a basic assumption that the teacher is in control
of the classroom environment, that the teacher controls what
learning is going on, and that teaching is (or at least should be
equivalent to) learning. But teaching is not equal to learning.
Peter Senge confirmed this view at a teleconference in January,
when he stated that most schools are "teaching organizations"
rather than "learning organizations". The question that arises is:
How do we create an effective learning environment ? In his book,
Senge states, Dialogue offers us the unique opportunity
to stop teaching and become a learner among other learners. It is
here, perhaps more than any other place, that thinking and doing
are joined together in developing new habits of mind. I recognize now as I gather students
together in a circle on the floor to play The Dialogue Game that
we are practicing a new way of learning. We are being provided
with an opportunity to "become observers of (our) own thinking"
(Senge, p.242). We don't have to get it perfect; we can use
frustrations as learning tools, identifying each obstacle we
confront as yet another opportunity to learn and grow. This is a
distinct shift of mind from the normal practice in the classroom
where externalized goals and rewards clearly identify success and
failure. Instead, we can begin to access the larger pool of
meaning available to our collective intelligence, and we can catch
a glimpse of the truth within the claim made by The Dialogue Game:
It is indeed a place where we all become more
intelligent. San Dieguito
Academy Encinitas,
CA
Whether it be at the local, state, or
national level, standards evolve out of a desire for our children
to be able to use their minds well. In 1993, Washington state
created four Learning Goals which are reflected in most national
and state standard-setting efforts. They are: GOAL 2: Know and apply core concepts
and principles of mathematics; social, physical and life
science; civics and history; geography; arts; and health and
fitness; GOAL 3 : Think analytically,
logically, and creatively, and integrate experience and
knowledge to form reasoned judgments and solve
problems; GOAL 4 : Understand the importance of
work and how performance, effort, and decisions directly affect
career and educational opportunities. Veteran educators look at goals like
those of Washington state and say, "Educational Reform? This is
nothing new. We have always had these goals." Any reasonable
person looks at goals like those of Washington state and says,
"What's new? I always thought these were our goals." So if the goals are not really new, what
significant results are supposed to come from educational reform?
Most persons agree that the real goal is for students to graduate
actually having learned what is taught. If what is supposed to be taught has not
changed dramatically from state to state and throughout the
nation, yet students are not learning, what needs to change? The
answer is obvious to Mortimer Adler, Howard Gardner, David
Perkins, and Theodore Sizer. We must change the way we
teach. One of the most powerful teaching
strategies one can use to teach all of the Learning Goals of
Washington state is Socratic Seminars. It is amazing that such a
tool has not been fully embraced by more educational leaders. The
regular use of Socratic Seminars teaches students to "think
analytically, logically, and creatively, and integrate experience
and knowledge to form reasoned judgments and solve problems." (
Goal 3 ) Practitioners of Socratic Seminars
wholeheartedly, enthusiastically, and unreservedly believe that
Goal 3 of Washington state's Learning Goals is exactly what
Socratic Seminars do in all subject areas at all grade levels. The
puzzling question of why Socratic Seminars are not widely present
in today's classrooms generates more questions. Is it because so few site and central
office administrators know much about Socratic Seminars? Is it
because for teachers, schools, districts, or states to embrace
Socratic Seminars it involves a philosophical shift away from
teacher-driven and content-centered curriculum to a
student-centered and inquiry-driven curriculum ? Is it because
educators who have made this philosophical shift don't have the
resources to introduce, train, and support practitioners of
Socratic Seminars? I believe it is a combination of all of
these issues. Site administrators and central office leaders are
so overcome with the demands of their present agendas that they
have little time and energy to gain the new experience and
understanding of the power of Socratic Seminars to hit all the
targets of their Learning Goals. Every assistant principal, principal,
assistant superintendent, or superintendent that I have trained in
Socratic Seminar Leadership Training has left a workshop convinced
of the power and potential of Socratic Seminars to positively
change the way teachers teach and students learn. The challenge is
to get site administrators and central office leaders into the
seminar circle in the first place ! Unless one's beliefs about
education come out of philosophies like constructivism and
cooperative learning, the idea of real learning resulting from
dialogue is quite foreign -- until one experiences it for
oneself. Up until the last six months, I firmly
believed that educational reform comes as a direct result of the
quality and quantity of conversations present in school buildings.
In the absence of real dialogue among colleagues, no major change
occurs. I still believe this to be true. The almost insurmountable
challenge is to create chunks of time large enough not just to
talk, but to learn and practice true dialogue -- in the most pure
and honorific sense. ( I am coming to believe, however, that
dialogue by itself might not be enough; it might not be the most
important element necessary to change people's beliefs about how
students learn and about how we should teach. ) As I mentioned earlier, seldom has an
educator left a Socratic Seminar Leadership Training of mine ( I
am certain the same is true of other trainers ) unconvinced of the
potential of Socratic Seminars to change teaching in powerfully
effective ways. Why are they convinced? Is it because we spend
three days just talking about Socratic Seminars? Of course not. We
spend three days actively engaged in Socratic Seminars. We spend
three days reflecting on the seminar experience and its
relationship to what is and is not happening in classrooms. I am
coming to believe that people change their beliefs from a
combination of experience and reflection. The spread of Socratic Seminars through
schools depends on many factors. The foremost of these is
providing opportunities for educators to experience Socratic
Seminars first-hand, and for educators to spend quality time
reflecting on the experience. For this to happen, the advocates of
Socratic Seminars must focus attention on attracting site and
central office administrators into the seminar circle. For without
their commitment, change and growth in schools occurs very slowly.
When it comes to understanding the power
of Socratic Seminar to improve the intellectual abilities and
academic achievement of all students, "seeing is believing". The
task is providing opportunities for administrators to discover for
themselves that Socratic Seminars is the missing ingredient needed
to help students reach the goals of reading, thinking,
communicating, and understanding at superior levels. Surely, these
are the goals we want for every student in every
school. Socratic
Seminars Northwest Walla Walla,
WA
We find the value of the
following piece to be its description of a process whereby
students were included in the design and evaluation of a
rubric. We are pleased to publish it in the hopes that it will
inspire others to do likewise. But please, do it your own
way !] One of the "rules" of Socratic Seminars
is that a participant may "pass" when asked a question by another
participant. But in an educational environment, speaking in a
group setting is a skill that should be encouraged and perfected.
The question, then, is: How does a coach/facilitator maintain the
integrity of a seminar and provide the student with an accurate
assessment of his oral participation? I encourage my students to participate in
seminars for several reasons: each person has valuable ideas and
questions to contribute to our group-learning experience; to
withhold that contribution would be selfish, since twenty heads
learn better than one; only practice in speaking will instill
confidence in speaking; putting thoughts into words often enhances
understanding of difficult material. My desire was to include the key
stakeholders -- the students themselves -- in the design of an
assessment rubric. They would be assessing themselves and needed
to feel the rubric was valid and meaningful to them. I suggested
categories to the students based on Michael Strong's Class
Participation Assessment Rubric. Over a period of one semester we
worked out a scoring scale and format. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * Name: Academic Growth 1. Preparation of text 2. Speaking 3. Listening Social Skills 2. Sensitivity/Good
manners 3. Eye contact when
speaking 4. Eye contact with
speaker Personal Skills 2. Responsibility and
iniative Comments about the group
process: Comments about the
text: Comments about the
facilitator: Comments about the Socratic
Question: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * Speaking: I use a seating chart of the
seminar circle to keep track of how often each student speaks.
At the beginning of the seminar, we share vocabulary
definitions which count towards verbal participation. Then I
will ask one or more shy students to read the text aloud for
speaking credit. Participation in the dialogue itself is the
main way to earn credit. Listening: Students are expected to be
attentive listeners. I will point out a student's distraction
of self or others, if necessary. Students are encouraged to
monitor each other's attention. Social Skills Sensitivity/Good manners: Students
must show deference to others, and discourage debating,
debasing, or dominating. Eye contact when speaking: Students
naturally want to speak to me, so I signal them to look at
others by pointing to my eyes. Eye contact with speaker: If I notice
that students are not focused on the speaker, I will interrupt
the dialogue to ask the group where they are
looking. Personal Skills Responsibility and initiative: This
category includes text preparation, oral and aural
participation, and behavior. The comment sections on the bottom are
for me as a facilitator. I want to continually improve in my
role and to value the students' input. I encourage them to make
specific comments and avoid the vagueness of "good job" or
"good text". I grade the rubrics on a total of 20
points. Each section (Academic Growth, Social Skills, Personal
Skills, and Comments) is worth 5 points. In Academic Growth, if
a student rates all 3's, he will receive 5 points; two 3's and
one 2 will be 4 points; two 2's and one 3 will be 4 points;
three 2's will be 3 points; etc. My students are comfortable using the
assessment rubric now. I seldom need to adjust a student's
self-assessment. If I do, I write a comment back to him in the
comment section explaining why I perceive his grade to be
different than what he perceives it to be. STUDENT RESPONSES My students have come to look forward to
our weekly seminars on block scheduling days. They were eager to
give me testimonials about the personal growth they gained through
Socratic practice: D I have
learned to accept people's opinions -- even if I think they are
deranged. D I learn
things about people and life that positively affect my life and
how I act and what I do. D I have
better social skills. D Now I
like discussing books with other people. D I have
learned to listen more carefully to what somebody says. I've
learned to voice my opinion more often and not to keep it
inside me. Listening to ideas and opinions on subjects has
given me a better understanding of whatever we're reading,
which has given me an edge to what things in life are all
about. D Many of
the texts made me realize things about life that I have never
come across. D I am more
confident with myself when I talk. D I've
learned to do research on words I don't understand instead of
just skipping them. D I can
read better. D I feel
closer to the people in the class. D I look up
definitions that I don't know. Before, I probably would not
have done so. Now, I enjoy asking questions and getting
feedback on things I couldn't have figured out by
myself. D It has
shown me there is more than one "right" opinion. D Before, I
would never speak out without raising my hand. Seminars have
made me forget that and speak up. D You have
helped me with my eye contact when speaking. D Seminars allow me to compare and
contrast the text to the present day. D Mentally
: I tend to think more about what I am reading. I don't just
look at the words anymore. Socially: Every time I speak in the
group, I get better at talking in front of people. Personally:
Whenever I can help someone in their confusion, like answer
someone's question, I feel better D I got
over my fear of public speaking. D My
imagination has grown. I see things from different points of
view. D I've
improved my critical thinking and analytical
abilities. D I've
become more patient and listen better to others. If you adopt or adapt this rubric for
your students, be prepared to interrupt the dialogue in the
beginning. You will need to direct discussion to areas on the
rubric that need addressing. Students may need to be taught how to
work as a team, how to make eye contact, or what it means to be
sensitive toward others. After you collect and grade the rubrics,
you will be communicating in writing back to the students on
errors of judgment they have made in assessing themselves. But,
they quickly learn to adjust their perceptions of their
participation. The rubric then becomes a tool that encourages
deeper participation -- rather than a grade on an
assignment. Mills High
School Millbrae,
CA
Hopefully, you have already seen a flyer
or an e-mail message about this event. For anyone committed to
school reform, who sees Socratic Seminars or dialogue as an
important component of that process, this is a wonderful
opportunity to meet with like-minded professionals to enlarge our
common understanding. Former Deputy Director
of The Council for
Basic Education Current Director of The
Educational Enhancement Partnership Michael Strong Former member of The
Alaska Paideia Project Current Headmaster of The
Winston Academy
Some
Are More Equal Than Others Webster's defines the word "peer" as "one
that is of equal standing with another." The distance between
current classroom practice and one that emerges from a true
grappling with this definition is considerable. I want to focus on
high schools for a moment, since the distance is greatest in these
organizations. Forget, for the moment, about the
inherent hierarchy that characterizes many aspects of the high
school experience. Dismiss the fact that students and
teachers do not share restroom facilities. ( Student restrooms are
usually the filthy ones without soap, paper towels, and toilet
paper. ) Ignore the fact that teachers have desks
in which they can store their supplies and work materials, whereas
students have lockers and must wander large campuses with their
survival needs stuffed into backpacks or under their arms. ( If
you are a teacher without a permanent classroom, your experience
of having to borrow space, drawers, and cabinets from other
teachers' territory more closely approximates the experience of
your students. ) Ignore the fact that, as a student, you
would rarely have a role in any decision of consequence. ( How
many students have a voice on a teacher's union bargaining
committee, on a school board, on a suspension and expulsion
committee, or even on a committee that establishes curriculum ? )
Observations of the classrooms themselves
tell an even harsher story about the status of students, their
voice, and their social ranking in the overall power structure of
schools. Consider the traditional classroom layout (below) and, in
the spirit of Socrates, consider answers to some simple questions:
To see how difficult it is to break a
paradigm simply by moving seats around, examine the superficially
more innovative seat Arrangements II and III : Who has the most freedom to move in these
seating situations? Where is the locus of control? What
relationships, if any, are implicit among students in how these
seats are arranged? Would it be obvious to a substitute teacher
which desk he or she should use? What, other than some sign saying
"Teacher Sits Here", might make the teacher's desk obvious? Do
these arrangements create significant changes over the seating in
Arrangement I ? Chairs arranged in a circle are the stamp
of a Socratic Seminar in many schools. Students respond
differently to this layout: They behave differently when they are not
concealed behind the back of a student in the desk in front of
them. The arrangement does not allow for a back-of-the-class
mentality, since there is no back in a circle. Unless the teacher
pushes his or her entire desk into the center, he or she cannot
use the symbolic size and weight of this desk to convey any
messages about power or status. I have had students tell me that the
Socratic Circle is a signal of something special. It means that
this class stands a chance of holding some interest. I am always
heartened when students respond positively to Socratic Seminars,
but it also causes me to question what the norm is when Dialogue
is considered to be special. When students leave the classroom,
age-ghettoing returns. But teachers can make tremendous difference
over the portion of the high school experience that they,
themselves, control. What would a school look and feel like to
students if the institutions responsible for their education could
make even simple changes that would stand as proof to them that
they had an equal footing -- at least in a couple of classrooms --
at least for part of the day? School-to-Work
Program Bay Area
School Reform
Collaborative All materials in this site are © 1998 - 2009 The Invisible School. All rights reserved.
Changing
Habits of Mind: One Teacher's Journey
I received Socratic Seminar
training early in 1996. Although much of the talk was about
changing one's "habits of mind," I had no clear sense of what such
change would look like. I returned to my classroom, attempted to
practice The Dialogue Game with my students, experienced more
frustration than success, and allowed those frustrations to
justify avoiding dialogue, rather than demonstrating the need for
more practice. My own belief system (habits of mind) reminded me
rather loudly that I had very limited time with my students; I
feared wasting that time in less-than-successful endeavors. A year
after my training, I no longer attempted playing The Dialogue Game
in my classroom. What I failed to realize at the time was that I
was stuck in a "teaching" habit of mind.
"are concerned with a
shift of mind from seeing parts to seeing wholes, from seeing
people as helpless reactors to seeing them as active
participants in shaping their reality, from reacting to the
present to creating the future. " (p.69)
"the process of
aligning and developing the capacity of a team to create the
results its members truly desire." (p.236)
"It is tempting to
think that just because one understands certain principles one
has 'learned' about the discipline. This is the familiar trap
of confusing intellectual understanding with learning. Learning
always involves new understandings and new behaviors,
'thinking' and 'doing'. " (p.374)
Mary
C. Blizzard
Educational
Reform and Socratic Seminars:
A View from
Washington State
GOAL 1: Read with comprehension,
write with skill, and communicate effectively and responsibly
in a variety of ways and settings;
Oscar
Graybill
A
Seminar Rubric with Student Responses
[Ed: We
maintain that there is no single way to prepare a text,
facilitate a seminar, or engage in critique. Indeed, there is
strength in diversity. There is certainly no single rubric for
scoring a seminar.
SOCRATIC SEMINAR ASSESSMENT
RUBRIC
Text Title:
Rate on a scale of 0=low and
3=high
Comments
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3
1. Teamwork
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3
1. Willingness to accept
other viewpoints
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3
Academic Growth
Preparation of text: Depending
on its difficulty, I may read the text with the students in
class so they can hear its "voice." For homework, I ask the
students to look up unfamiliar vocabulary words, to read the
text several times, and to write down questions or thoughts
that they will bring to the seminar.
Teamwork: Students are
encouraged to "bridge" comments and questions and ask others
for clarification. I stress that each person in the dialogue is
responsible for making it work. A student who does not speak
during the seminar cannot receive a 3 for teamwork.
Willingness to accept other
viewpoints: I ask students to consider each other's viewpoints
even though they might not agree initially.
D I
read texts more carefully now, and analyze everything, and ask
more questions.
Susan
Crumpler
Public
Workshop on Socratic Dialogue
Socratic Seminars West is hosting a
two-day workshop open to the public, entitled "Socratic Dialogue:
An Essential Component of School Reform ?" It will be led by
Dennis Gray and Michael Strong, at a location in the San Francisco
Area.
Dennis Gray
Former member (with
Adler and Sizer) of The Paideia Group
Author of
The Habit of Thought:
From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice
Saturday, June 27,
1998
Among the key premises for Socratic
Dialogue is the practice -- not merely the concept -- of
establishing each member of the circle as a peer. In my work with
facilitating dialogue among adults and young people, introducing
this concept sparks little controversy. "Of course", the thinking
seems to go, "we'll all be 'peers' here today, and won't that be
nice." My observations differ among those I have trained or
encountered in Socratic Seminars: Many who participate in dialogue
have no real intention of considering others as their peers,
especially if those others happen to be students. In giving
intellectual lip service to the profound implications of dialogue
among peers, many rob themselves of the transformative potential
that Seminars can bring.
[graphic
unavailable at this time]
How does this diagram compare to
the layout of your own classroom? Which desk is the largest? Which
desk is the best maintained? Are there any ramifications to
sitting toward the back of this classroom? Who generally sits
there in classrooms you have observed? Who sits in the back in
your own classroom? Why is it obvious where the teacher might go
in this classroom? Is it as obvious where the locus of control
resides in this situation?
[graphic
unavailable at this time]
[graphic
unavailable at this time]
Greg
John
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