Engaging students with digitallypowered Socratic Seminars Martine Brown
What happened when I silenced
my own voice
and elevated the voice of my students?
It all started with this guy– I mean it
started with Socrates.
Socrates was born in 500 BC,
and he believed in the power
of questions.
He believed that whatever you wanted
to learn or grow or become,
it was founded in question.
Now my story starts a little bit before
that, but I do want to start with this note:
“Education is the kindling of the flame,
not the filling of a vessel.”
And it’s at this point that I
began to realize
that I was filling vessels instead of
lighting a flame.
For a long time, I had been hearing
about Socratic seminars
based on Socrates' thought
that everything we learned comes
from a question.
I’ve seen it happening in classrooms
all around me,
and I would step inside and
from time to time, I would take a look.
There was an inner circle where students
would talk and discuss
and use questions to guide their thinking.
There was also an outer circle, and in
that outer circle,
students would observe and take notes
on the things that they had heard.
Now when I thought about this myself,
I didn’t really think that this was a
place that I could move.
It made me concerned that the teacher
was giving so much control
to the students.
But this is what you have to understand.
I’m a bit of a talker.
I just wanted kids to get it.
And so I did a lot of talking and I did
a lot of feeling,
and a whole lot of vessels.
But it didn’t matter much because there
was a little small hole
in the bottom of that vessel, and it was
just seeping right on out.
I began to realize that I had to do
something different.
I started teaching a college
readiness course
and I was flipping through
the resources, doing my research,
and once again the Socratic seminar
plopped into my lap,
and I said, “Okay. it’s time to get rid of
my fear of losing control
and try something new.”
Here’s the deal: I was allowing my
own fears keep me
from helping my students reach
their greatest potential,
and it was simply time to
take a risk,
to step out of the box
and to do something different.
At the same time, I had other experiences,
that I was dealing with professionally:
technology was just at the
reach of my fingers,
and I was beginning to explore
tools that changed everything I did,
and changed all the many different
ways in the way that I taught.
I began using tools like Doceri and
with Doceri,
it allowed me to remove remove myself
from my table,
and allowed me to move around the room
and sit next to the kids
who needed a little extra TLC
during my class.
I began using tools like GradeCam
that allowed me to not only grade the
assignments in an automated program,
but then I was able to upload them into the
grade book within minutes.
But the biggest impact of using that
tech
is that both tools gave me an
opportunity to reach my students faster
within the context of my classroom.
So when I considered using the Socratic
seminars in the classroom,
I knew for certain that
it had to have tech.
Certainly there was a way to take this
method of speaking and communicating
and driving questions that supported
critical thinking,
there had to be some tech to support
that,
So I did some research and I found
an article by a teacher
and this teacher had used digital
back channels to support her students.
Here’s how it works: she had an inner
circle
and students talked and used evidence
to support their ideas as they always did,
but in the back channel, she had this
online back channel
where students essentially would listen
to the inner circle,
but then they would communicate with
one another as the inner circle was talking.
And I loved it – it was exactly what I
wanted:
the perfect blend of research-based
strategies and technical integration,
but I also had to change how I taught
because remember, I’m a talker.
I put my students in small groups
or one-on-one,
and we met and we talked about
what they thought about the text.
We spent a couple days doing that
and then it was time.
My very first Socratic seminar.
I was still a little nervous, but I had
swallowed the fear
and decided that creating an environment
where my students led the dialogue
was more important than any fear
I might have.
I decided that I really wanted to focus
on my students and their speech.
I didn’t worry much with the online
back channel,
I thought it was a nice way to
integrate some tech,
but I really didn’t feel like it was going
to be the highlight.
I knew that having my kids work
in smaller circles and speak
was going to be the key to their
success in this seminar.
But I was wrong.
I was actually really wrong.
I set out my structure, my inner circle
only used the annotated text
and my outer circle, well, they had an
online chat room that they participated in,
and what happened in that chat room
changed everything.
Because remember, I was focused on
the inner circle.
I wanted to hear all the great things
they had to say,
but just like everyone here, I had about
six to ten students
who were very shy in my class.
I mean if i gave them a grade
that was based on their ability to speak,
they would take the zero,
and then go home and calculate
how could they still pass my class
without ever having to speak in class.
Those kids, the shy kids,
the kids who have nothing to say.
In that Socratic seminar, in that online back channel,
there was a whole nother series of
magic that was happening.
My silent kids, my shy students, they
began to purposely
run through that back channel, share
their ideas, speak up,
and be the voice in the back channel,
and I was thrilled.
I didn’t know how much insight they
had to offer
because they allowed their ability to
talk in front of others stop them,
and the back channel
gave them that voice.
I also noticed that my kids encouraged
one another,
agreed with points that were said,
and gave each other the feeling
that even if I’m talking to my classmates
in the inner circle,
I still had the support of the outer
circle.
And I walked away from that day realizing
this is an opportunity to create
academic camaraderie,
academic community.
It was an opportunity to allow students
to differentiate their experience.
Students sometimes, they just observed,
and then they participated in the back
channel.
Some students spoke and they were
outspoken in that inner circle
and they drove the questions that were
being asked in the inner circle.
Sometimes they really dove into the back
channel and engaged with their peers
as they listened to the dialogue that
was happening before them,
and sometimes they used those
listening ears to encourage others.
This experience changed me and changed
everything that I did going forward.
I became sort of a Socratic seminar
missionary.
I talk to every single person I can think of
about the power of a Socratic seminar.
Now, over time, I moved into a position
as an instructional coach,
and I got to spend some time in one of
my training sessions
thinking about how I could connect
globally using any tool I wanted to.
Well, as usual, I was really excited about
Socratic seminars.
It was one of the key things I loved
to talk about and that I loved to share,
and it hit me: what if we did a Socratic
seminar globally?
Let me take you through this.
When we talk about doing a Socratic
seminar globally, we widen the circle,
we make it much bigger, so you have
one classroom in one place,
another classroom in another place
(it could be another class, another school,
or even another city in the world).
All of those students in that outer circle,
they would participate in the back channel.
The inner circle, instead of one circle,
you’d have two:
a small circle on one campus, and a small
circle on another campus,
and they would participate in rounds
of Socratic seminar sessions.
I had the idea, but I also needed some
teachers.
I reached out to Chris Weidman and
Shania Smith,
on my home campus at the time,
and I said, “Hey, I have this idea.
Will you try it out with me?”
And they both agreed that they would.
I met with Shania and Chris
several times and we developed a plan.
We decided that we wanted to
bring our students together
from these two different states,
to talk about our topic.
And what happened that
day was magical.
I didn’t realize how important it was
for students to connect with other people,
other places, to talk and analyze text.
Our students were 100%
engaged on both sides.
There was a sense of curiosity here,
and at the very end of the seminar,
I noted something very
special that happened:
the bell rang, all the kids started clamoring
to get their things and leave in both states,
in both classrooms, but at the very end,
I had about five or six kids
who were heavily involved in
that Socratic seminar that hung back.
They watched the other kids leave the
room, and as I observed them, it hit me:
they wanted to know if they were enough.
They wanted to know if they were
academically competent enough
to engage in the same conversation
with someone else they didn’t know.
And that’s when I realized
that what I was doing
was going to change everything
and every every way
that I looked at education.
So my question that I started with is
simply this:
What happens when I silence my
own voice
and elevate the voices of my students?
Well the first thing that happened is
that I realized that connecting globally
has its place in authentic learning.
It gives our students the opportunity to
have a real experience.
Very simple language:
“Hey guys we’re going to create
some questions.
You’re going to talk to some peers
and you’re going to talk to other folks in
other places and share what you think.”
Very simple task.
But the benefits of that task
are far-reaching.
I also realize the power of voice.
You see when we build these online back channels,
we give our students an opportunity to
craft not only their face-to-face voice,
but their digital voice as well.
Check this out: we have one of the biggest
events going on right now historically –
we have an impeachment trial happening.
But if you look very closely, all of these
correspondents are observing this trial
and they’re using a back channel to
discuss.
So what does that mean for our students?
Well that means for each one of our
students,
every time they participate in an online
back channel,
they are giving themselves an
opportunity to learn how to become
a White House correspondent,
a journalist.
They are learning how to sit at the table
with their family on Thanksgiving day,
enjoy a meal, but also they’re able to ask
the right questions, provide their opinions
with evidence, and think deeply about
what’s being said around that table.
They’re able to work in a boardroom
or go have dinner with friends
because they’ve learned how to craft
their words, how to craft their ideas,
and use those ideas
to potentially change the world.
So my question for you today,
what are you willing to do
to silence yourself
and elevate the voices
of your students?