I sent the following story in an e-mail to one of my Assistant Principals. I knew he would "get it," and I think it's also worth sharing here. I've included a couple of websites for more information on Socratic Seminars and AVID, which are both mentioned in the e-mail.
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Yesterday, Mr. Handley called me during 3rd period to ask if I could meet with one of his students before or after school. The class was preparing for a Socratic Seminar, and this particular student did not know how to mark the text or generate higher-level questions in order to prepare for the seminar. He has never had a Reading Workshop, and he has missed a lot of the instruction in Mr. Handley's class. So, Mr. Handley offered to set up a one-on-one appointment with me as another opportunity. I was not available after school, but I promised to be here with an open schedule in the morning.
The student and I met for about 20 minutes this morning. He shook my hand, looked me in the eye, and was genuinely interested in getting some help. He came prepared having already read through the article and his instructions for the seminar. We read the article again together, talked about our own personal connections, practiced marking the text, and came up with some questions that he wanted to ask his peers during the discussion. He clearly understood the article and was able to critically analyze the claims. His biggest reservation was about what he was supposed to do during the seminar. So, we talked about pointing to a paragraph and posing a question, responding to his peers' ideas with his own opinions, and discussing the basic ideas within the article. I challenged him to make sure he got a seat in the inner circle and really speak up during the discussion. He practiced some of the comments he thought he might make, and then he went on his way.
Results? Yes! Mr. Handley said he asked three of his own questions, made references back to the text, and made two specific comments that drove the conversation forward.
Isn't it cool when teachers are trained across content areas and can call upon each other for support? Isn't it cool that AVID strategies apply in any classroom? Isn't it cool that a student who had rarely spoken up in class was able to have an interesting, relevant, academic discussion with his peers?
:) Smiles all day!
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