Skip to main content

The Art of Conversation


"True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.
I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think."


-Socrates







The students in grade 6 are developing their understanding of the world around them by reading news articles from the website newsela. What I like about this website is that it allows you to make the article accessible to students of different reading levels.

It was not the perfect lesson. Students were not following the rules of our socratic seminar. In the beginning, the first group of inner circle students felt nervous and kept repeating key points, without giving evidence from the text. 

A bit of background about the content?

They read the following article: (chosen by a  few students)

Candidate dismisses criticism of his plan to keep Muslims out of U.S.


Activity: Socratic Seminar.

What I liked about this first part of our experience was that two students who generally hardly come forward to share their learning, volunteered to be part of the inner circle. As a class, it seems we had managed to create a safe haven for them. This was a wonderful realisation for me!

And so, we tentatively went into the second round of our socratic seminar. They decided to change the question prompt a bit as they thought it would allow more room for their perspectives.

So from "Why do people vote for Donald Trump?" to
"Would you vote for someone like Donald Trump?" made a huge difference to the quality of conversation as you can see below.


Hope you can take the time to look at the videos!



 (with the second improvised question)




 

This video was based on the first question.
It's amazing how a powerful question can promote discussion among people, isn't it?




Thanks for reading.

Sources:
https://niice.co/search/socrates

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Unravelling the inquiry cycle in a PYP class room

“ People can make choices to support the sustainability of the Earth’s energy resources .” Me to students : Does that make sense? Students to me : (after a while)...not really...  Their understanding of "energy" during the pre-assessment task also reflected a superficial knowledge of the term. And thus our unit of inquiry started. As I was browsing the net, I came across this picture prompt- a map, which I thought would serve as a great provocation. The annual energy consumption per person . Kids love guessing where countries are, so it was a great way to address some geography at this point.  I had also been reading Craig Dwyer's  post  which inspired me to change my inquiry cycle and use a simpler one. Wonder (while exploring)- Explore (while wondering)- Create (while reflecting)- Reflect (with subsequent wonderings). I was feeling more at ease now. The map allowed the students to make a lot of inferences based on patterns which slowly

Summative assessment- simple machines

The student task : to design a machine that would : a) pop a balloon b) lift a bucket of water c) ring a bell d) push a ball into a hole Criteria: They must must design a machine using atleast 2 simple machines. They have to use IT skills and upload their video on Youtube, generate the embed code and transfer same to blog. Their video must be clear and creative. Though some of these students may be struggling with the language, using correct scientific vocabulary ensures that their presentations are clearly understood.

Student Agency in a PYP classroom

http://www.teacherstakecharge.com/ We have just started our unit on Ancient Civilisations. My students had been complaining about their summative task for the last unit. They were experts on the human body systems and we had a "Hot Seat" session where they were asked a few questions. They found it boring after a while. Frankly, so did I. And so I decided to relinquish control of the IB planner to them...at least stages 3 and 4. I have never tried this before. I will be working on the " reflection stage" with them later on. What can I say! The past two days have been exciting, eventful, noisy and very, very fruitful. As they looked at the central idea and the lines of inquiry, the whole class brainstormed tuning-in activities in groups. As they spoke, I updated my planner (stage 4 - learning engagements) This is what they came up with: Play "Chinese Whispers" to see how messages from the past can change as they filter down to us. Watch”