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Chapter 9 |
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Challenging All Students to Think on a Higher Level
Purpose: To encourage all students’ higher- level thinking by using Socratic seminars.
Carol V. Horn
Sixth-Grade Teacher, Fairfax County
(Virginia) Public
School System
After teaching in a gifted and talented program for eight years, I began to wonder-what would it be like to teach in a general education classroom using the strategies and techniques I was using with gifted children? What if all children were challenged to think on a high level and were given the opportunity to engage in learning activities found to be successful with gifted students? ...l decided to change schools and teach in a sixth-grade general education classroom. In my new heterogeneous classroom of sixth-graders, I first presented a more challenging curriculum for all students, and then adjusted and differentiated as needed in order to accommodate a variety of readiness levels. The content was enriched with interdisciplinary concepts that related to an overriding theme—the environment Perception, respect, survival, and responsibility were the key concepts woven throughout the curriculum in order to deepen the class’s understanding of the earth and the complexity of environmental issues. The Socratic seminar provided a safe and engaging forum for students to consider multiple viewpoints as they listened to and learned from each other. Primary source documents and literature provided a wealth of examples that we used to examine issues in the context of our key concepts. In response to a play, poem, speech, or short story I asked students to read, reflect, write about, question, and discuss ideas and insights that were generated by the text or prior knowledge of the subject.
A study of Native Americans, for example, included a Socratic seminar on Chief Seattle’s speech to the governor of the Washington territory, given in response to the governor’s request to buy the Indian’s land. This discussion shed light on the Native Americans’ perception of the earth and how this affected their treatment of the earth, which differed from that of the white settlers. As students began to understand the environmental impact of the arrival of the European settlers in America, the class was able to discuss the broader issues of land use and ownership. Through active discourse, they shared and debated different viewpoints, supported their opinions with clear reasoning and evidence, considered alternative views, and identified areas of agreement and disagreement The flow of ideas that the seminars fostered challenged students to question and defend their own thinking as they listened to their peers.
In the beginning of the year I noticed that the more advanced learners often took the lead in the discussions; however, as the year progressed more and more students participated in the dialogues and learned from the conversation. Flexible grouping allowed me to address the needs of students with different readiness levels by varying the texts in order to challenge the high-end learners and engage the strugglers.
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