It's been a tough week in my district with tragedy befalling our student body prior to an extended weekend coming up. While the shock is still something being processed, the students have been making good use of writing to work toward a sense of catharsis. Blogging, like writing, often offers the chance for reflection and thought.
This video of a talk by Sir Ken Robinson is something that has this writer thinking about the future and what needs to be done in education. Sometimes in darkness it's incumbent upon us to ignite something if no other illumination can be found. This video is something that's shining a light for me. It's Sir Ken Robinson being given the RSA Animation treatment.
My classes have gained experience in the use of Socratic Circles this year. The basic formula for that activity is one of the following:
students first read a passage critically and then form two concentric circles. First, the inner circle examines and discusses the text and the second circle comments on the quality of the dialogue. Then, the two circles switch places and roles, and the process is repeated with the new ideas from a new circle. The outer circle is required to remain quiet while the inner circle reacts and dialogues, and conversely, the inner circle must listen quietly to the outer circle’s evaluation of their conversation.
One new feature we are experimenting with is the use of backchanneling. One backchanneling that's been a part of this experimentation is Today's Meet. Today's Meet gives their own basic definition of backchanneling as:
The backchannel is everything going on in the room that isn't coming from the presenter.
The backchannel is where people ask each other questions, pass notes, get distracted, and give you the most immediate feedback you'll ever get.
The procedure is now altered to one of:
Group the class into two circles.
The Inner Circle speaks first using Socratic questioning methods.
The Outer Circle backchannels using Today's Meet while the Inner Circle discusses.
Time is called and the transcript of the backchannel is turned into a word cloud for analysis.
The Inner Circle's work is evaluated while new topics are generated from the evaluation and word cloud.
The circles switch and the new circles have their respective discussions and backchannel sessions.
So here is an example of Socratic Circles at work with students discussing the first part of "The Odyssey".
Here is the transcript of the backchannel from that session. Below is the word cloud generated from the backchannel session:
"Telemachia" Click on the link above to see this word cloud at WordItOut. You may also view it on this website if you enable JavaScript (see your web browser settings).
