Fishbowl Socratic Seminar Mary Roach s Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

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1 Guarino 1 Elizabeth Guarino Round Reflection 27 March 2014 Fishbowl Socratic Seminar Mary Roach s Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Today, I hosted my third and final teaching round. Because I had already scheduled a Socratic Seminar for my students, I decided to host a round so that others could attend and provide helpful feedback on my teaching practice and the learning process of my students. Today s lesson consisted of my Period Two class of Goddard Scholars and the first eight chapters of Mary Roach s informational text, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. The foci of today s round included my students developing questions (using Costas s Levels of Questioning) and using those questions to facilitate their own conversations, as well as further developing the ability to discuss and defend topics (within the context of Stiff) that are of interest to them. I loved observing my students converse on their own agenda for an hour, and I thought they were incredible in terms of the depth of their conversations. The experience of today s Socratic Seminar round has reminded me of how essential it is to facilitate a class, maintaining a classroom that is student-led, and actually give students the opportunity to take charge of their learning and dedicate substantial class time to share their voices and opinions with each other. As aforementioned, today s class was part of our unit Style & Say on Truth: Mary Roach s Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, and in terms of the unit as a whole, we are about two weeks away from completing this unit of study. Because this is the first lengthy informational text (aside from memoirs) that we ve read from cover to cover, we have been working through the text at a relatively slower pace than usual, and we have focused heavily on the ethical attitudes about death and the dead, as conveyed in each of Roach s twelve chapters.

2 Guarino 2 Furthermore, because it is such a challenging text for students, I ve guided the majority of our conversations with comprehension and discussion questions that I carefully prepared before beginning the unit; as a result, I wanted to provide students with an opportunity to uninterruptedly ask their own questions about the book. The Socratic Seminar method is one that lends itself well to this kind of student-centered conversation. The seminar that students participated in today was the fishbowl Socratic Seminar (this was their choice) where students formed two circles the inner circle conversed, while the outer circle made observations about the discussion, and then the inner and outer circles switched. Through today s activity of our fishbowl Socratic Seminar, the learning goals I outlined for students to achieve were as follows: 1.) Students will be able to develop knowledge, understanding, and ethical attitudes about the topics and ideas of interest in Mary Roach s informational text, Stiff, by asking and answering their own original questions. 2.) Students will be able to evaluate options and make decisions by participating in the inner circle of the Socratic Seminar. 3.) Students will be able to practice their impromptu speaking skills by answering the original questions of their fellow classmates. 4.) Students will know and be able to evaluate their understanding of the concepts within the first eight chapters of Mary Roach s Stiff. Prior to class beginning, I was nervous because my students expressed having little to no familiarity with Socratic Seminars; however, the Socratic Seminar went quite well and my students reflections expressed sincere enjoyment of the activity (in fact, we ve already scheduled our next Socratic Seminar to take place as soon as we finish the text). Additionally, I

3 Guarino 3 was also concerned with how well students would follow the inner and outer circle rules (i.e. only speaking when IN the INNER circle). It turned out that such issues did not arise, although I was well prepared with what actions to take if they had (please refer challenges on Lesson Activity plan for further elaboration of this point). One of the most important things that I learned today was preparation. This has been a large area of growth for me all year long, as I am always over-planned and over-prepared; however, today s preparedness was the result of my students. Using Costa s Levels of Questioning to generate questions BEFORE beginning the activity was a large contributor, I believe, to the overall success of the seminar. Although there were few moments of silence, at any point in time where conversation became dull, each student had three (if not more) questions that he or she could ask of their classmates (and I starred all appropriate questions beforehand to boost student confidence in actually asking their questions). I also provided students with a rubric (for how I would grade their performance in the inner circle) and suggested questions to use when part of the outer circle. Students had specific and definite tasks at all times during the activity, which, in turn, left very little time for distraction or confusion. Furthermore, all of the activities that students were responsible for throughout the Socratic Seminar were meaningful and helped to enrich the overall activity. It was good to keep students aware of what they should be doing at all times during the seminar, but it was also crucial that students were not engaging in meaningless activities. My round questions asked for attendees to record evidence of student engagement and the overall process of the activity. I was curious to see how students participated in our fishbowl and to what extend they truly cared and felt invested in their comments, as well as the comments of their peers. I received feedback noting several students taking on leadership roles in

4 Guarino 4 the first inner circle, and due to the lack of leadership roles in the second inner circle, more questions were asked and more topics were discussed. It was interesting to hear of the apparent correlation between leadership and depth of discussion. In addition, observers noted that students were not just engaged in conversation, but also, they wanted to prove their points and to do so, often reframed issues and pushed them to the next level. During conversations, students also used a variety of talk moves, and the first inner circle (with more natural leaders) did a great job of building off of each other, the text, and questions related to subjects within the text. Again, I believe the preparedness, in addition to student motivation and interest, were the result of student achievement during the Socratic Seminar. Next time students participate a Socratic Seminar, I will, again, have them prepare questions for the seminar beforehand, and I won t be afraid to jump into conversation to draw out quieter voices and move duller or less engaging conversations along (this time, I didn t say anything except to facilitate the switching of circles). Additionally, as suggested by a student, I will also alert students of how long they have been in the inner circle so that they are more aware of the time frame. I might also consider (the next time we do a fishbowl Socratic Seminar) giving an outer circle student a specific person in the inner circle to focus on I didn t find this an appropriate task for this particular seminar. It was a pleasure to observe students conversing on their own and it was meaningful and informative to me, as the teacher, in many ways. The Socratic Seminar was a nice way to gauge student understanding of the text, as well as their opinions regarding many of the topics raised in Roach s informational text. It was also important that students had an opportunity to elaborate on a handful of the issues in Roach s text prior to the completion of their final essays. Ultimately, today s round has provided me with an opportunity to reflect on my position as facilitator and the student learning process that I am

5 Guarino 5 responsible for facilitating. I have learned the immense importance of properly preparing students for an activity and the amazing learning experiences that can ensue from motivation, interest, and student collaboration. I am so excited for our next Socratic Seminar (and so are my students all of their feedback was to do a Socratic Seminar in a one whole group circle again soon)!