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Noisy Classrom Workshop Participant Packet

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Noisy Classrom Workshop Participant Packet

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Fargo

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STEM Discourse Focus Bulletin - Four Part Jigsaw

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STEM Discourse Focus Bulletin - Four Part Jigsaw

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NY Times Learning Network

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Updated: Jan. 6, 2015 Students
1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:

What's going on in this picture?

What do you see that makes you say that?

What more can you find?

2. Next, join the conversation by posting a comment below. (Please remember not to post your last name.)

3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the @ symbol to address that student directly.

Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students' understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.

4. On Tuesday, we will reveal more information at the bottom of this post about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?
More? Updated: Jan. 6, 2015
This week's image comes from the slide show "2014 Year in Pictures". The Times caption reads:

A boy from Honduras watched a movie at a detention facility that the United States Border Patrol opened to temporarily house underage immigrants.

The full caption by Getty Images and John Moore, the photographer, reads:

A boy from Honduras watches a movie at a detention facility run by the U.S. Border Patrol on September 8, 2014 in McAllen, Texas. The Border Patrol opened the holding center to temporarily house the children after tens of thousands of families and unaccompanied minors from Central America crossed the border illegally into the United States during the spring and summer. Although the flow of underage immigrants has since slowed greatly, thousands of them are now housed in centers around the United States as immigration courts process their cases.

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What's Going On in This Picture? | Jan. 5, 2014

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On Mondays, we publish a Times photo without a caption, headline or other information about its origins. Join the conversation by posting about what you see, and why. A live discussion is offered from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time.

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Visual Thinking Strategies

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Visual Thinking Strategies

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Three SImple Questions

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Once you have a group of students gathered around an image you one the discussion by asking: What's going on in this picture? If the student needs to elaborate to make their statement more clear ask:...

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Noisy Classrom Workshop Participant Packet

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Noisy Classrom Workshop Participant Packet

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Bismarck

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Boosting Oral Language Development

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< Teaching Channel Guide to English Language Learners

As educators of ELLs, it's important to embed language instruction throughout the day, not just in isolated blocks of ELD time. For this reason, academic conversations are essential to helping students develop a deep understanding of content and language at the same time. But just because we ask students to discuss doesn't mean they will! We need to provide supports and structures that will engage and challenge our students to have these important conversations. Take a look at the resources on this page to learn more. Have questions? Be sure to ask them in the Q&A!

The Importance of Academic Conversations for ELLs
Begin by starting with the "why."
Create a Classroom that Supports Rich Talk
Get some advice from Stanford's Understanding Language by reading these two blog posts.

Teach Talk Moves
Give students the tools they need to have engaging conversations.
Strategically Use Scaffolds
Help your students participate in academic discussions by scaffolding the experience.
Provide Multiple Opportunities
Give your students the practice they need through short, daily, structured speaking activities.

Formatively Assess
Work with students to set goals, give feedback, and adjust teaching and learning. Also be sure to look for our Formative Assessment Deep Dive in the coming weeks for more great ideas.

Share Formative Assessment Data
If you're co-teaching or sharing students in a team of colleagues, it can be hard to remember to share formative assessment data. Make it easy with a simple system. In this video, see how co-teachers use a chart and clipboard system to share their data.

Carefully Structure Content Conversations
Content areas such as math and science are great places to have students share their thinking using academic language. Read Nicole Knights' blog to see how teachers in Oakland are integrating content and language. Then, check out the two videos below for some great examples.

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How can I structure academic conversations in the classroom to boost oral language development?

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Teaching Channel Guide to English Language Learners As educators of ELLs, it's important to embed language instruction throughout the day, not just in isolated blocks of ELD time. For this reason, academic conversations are essential to helping students develop a deep understanding of content and language at the same time.

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Video

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PLEASE CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT OR LOG IN TO ACCESS THIS CONTENT

Enjoy your first three pieces of content for free. Subscribe for unlimited access.

Have questions about subscribing? Click Here to learn more.

PLEASE CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT OR LOG IN TO ACCESS THIS CONTENT

Enjoy your first three pieces of content for free. Subscribe for unlimited access.

Have questions about subscribing? Click Here to learn more.

Thought starters

1. What are academic conversations?

2. Why is it important to value oral language?

3. How can you engage students in academic conversations?

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Academic Conversations with ELLs: Series Overview

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Discover how to engage ELLs in academic conversations. Maria Santos and Jeff Zwiers provide an introduction to a video series on academic conversations. Jeff describes the importance of oral language while Maria introduces how OUSD has been focusing on academic conversations.

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Structured Academic Controversy is a cooperative learning strategy for instructing research and presentation of supporting and opposing sides of controversial issues as well as a structured discussion of the issue(s). Through a structured academic controversy lesson students learn multiple sides of a controversial issue, how to support their position when advocating a particular side of an issue, and how to discuss differing views about an issue in a scholarly manner. This method helps students formulate, categorize, and understand ideas and information surrounding a controversial topic. It also helps formulate well educated, structured responses and presentation of positions for the student. The purpose of this lesson is to teach students about a controversial issue and to deepen and extend students' understandings of the issue by presenting factual evidence for both sides of the controversial issue and creating a 'safe environment' for the discussion of the issue. (Diana Hess, Structured Academic Controversy, 2004) The ability to formulate one's own opinion on an issue after fully understanding both sides is a critical life skill all students should develop. This lesson strategy fosters an environment in which students are able to perform this task, while discussing the content material and engaging in the issue together with their peers. For an apathetic student the opportunity to learn through discussion is a motivating factor and a way to change the pace in the class while engaging students. -From Fighting Apathy
WEBSITES:
Offers a "How To Teach" with a video:
http://www.peterpappas.com/2013/06/how-to-teach-structured-academic-controversy.html
Detailed Process with helpful strategies: http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/cl1/CL/doingcl/controv.htm Great Site for History with Helpful links:
http://teachingprimarysources.wordpress.com/teaching-strategies/ DOCUMENTS: nagc_struct_acad_cont SAC Handouts and Process LESSONS:
Full lesson with links to all resources:
http://imtinkelman.wmwikis.net/Structured+Academic+Controversy+Lesson+Plan

Another detailed and thorough lesson plan offered by PBS.org
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/previous_seasons/classroom/lp5c.html
Lesson Mascot Controversy Lesson Burning Issue ARTICLES: Article Critical Thinking Through Structured Controversy

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Structured Academic Controversy is a cooperative learning strategy for instructing research and presentation of supporting and opposing sides of controversial issues as well as a structured discussion of the issue(s). Through a structured academic controversy lesson students learn multiple sides of a controversial issue, how to support their position when advocating a particular side of an issue, and how to discuss differing views about an issue in a scholarly manner.

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Teach Rock Lesson Plan

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Essential Question

What makes a work of art "original," and how does the use of "sampling" technology in Hip Hop challenge perceptions of "originality"?

Overview

The act of sampling, or using a piece of an existing recording as part of a new recording, has been essential to Hip Hop musicians and producers since the genre's inception in the 1970s. First in the Bronx, and soon after in other boroughs of New York City, DJs used turntables to spin records, combine songs, and scratch rhythms entertaining audiences in public spaces as well as dance clubs. Pioneering DJs such as DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash noticed that, among other things, dancers preferred the instrumental "breaks"-sections that usually featured just drums and bass-in certain records, so they developed techniques using two turntables to extend these sections. These "breaks" also provided the background music for early rappers, the MCs. In 1979, the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" became the first popular song to contain rapping and, in some form, sampling. Hired by veteran musician and pioneering rap producer Sylvia Robinson, the Sugar Hill Records house band performed a "break" live by extending a short section of Chic's "Good Times" as an instrumental backdrop for the Sugarhill Gang's raps. Over the early 1980s, as Hip Hop became a fixture in American popular music, producers made use of live bands but, more often, began to incorporate the emerging digital technology of drum machines and samplers.

By the mid-1980s, drum machines and digital keyboards were embraced wholeheartedly by Hip Hop producers, for whom building tracks with these devices largely replaced recording with live bands. Early digital samplers were large, difficult to use and prohibitively expensive to most Hip Hop producers. New, more affordable, smaller samplers arrived in 1986-7 and were embraced by producers, quickly leading to a conceptual shift in what it meant to "play a break." Machines such as the E-mu SP-12 allowed users to "sample" up to 1.2 seconds of existing recordings and then play them back in new ways, often "looping" those short segments into something longer. Though samplers were introduced initially as a means to record short sounds for digital keyboards, Hip Hop producers discovered they were useful for something different: snatching bits of existing records-drum beats, vocal lines, spoken words-to be reconfigured in sonic collages. Sampling became the centerpiece of Hip Hop production-albums such as Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and The Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique are layered with dozens of samples-and a major facet of what many consider the genre's "Golden Age" in the late 80s and early 90s. Much as they had done with turntables a decade earlier, Hip Hop creators turned a technology on its head, using it creatively in a way its makers never fully intended.

When Hip Hop was something mostly confined to the nation's inner cities and not the commercial force it would become, the practice of sampling bits and pieces of music from copyrighted recordings was largely ignored by record labels and their legal teams. But as rap recordings and the broader culture of Hip Hop gained popularity and began to generate sizable revenue in the U.S., inevitably the questions of rights and remuneration arose. In 1989 members of The Turtles filed suit against rap group De La Soul and their Tommy Boy record label for the use of several seconds of the 1969 recording "You Showed Me." The case, which was settled out of court but resulted in a $1.7 million dollar payout for The Turtles, established sampling as big business and led many people to ask the question: "What makes something original"? To some ears, De La Soul had created something altogether new with the Turtles' recording. Others felt differently.

As it relates to art and music, "originality" has come to be viewed by many as a slippery concept. There are those who argue that no artist creates in a vacuum; musicians, writers and painters have always been influenced by other artists, drawing on their work as source material. Some have argued that musicians like Led Zeppelin were "stealing" because of their appropriation of American Blues riffs and vocal themes. And again, though De La Soul used a digital copy of a section of The Turtles' "You Show Me" in their recording "Transmitting Live From Mars," many would argue that The Turtles' recording was transformed and thus the De La Soul recording is "original."

In this lesson, students use examples from visual art as well as rap to enter into a "structured academic controversy" that explores the concept of originality.

Objectives

Upon completion of this lesson, students will:

1. Know (knowledge):

Key terms and concepts of U.S. Copyright Law

What "sampling" is as both a musical and technological practice

How people assimilate and disseminate cultural information

About visual artist Richard Price

About the concept of appropriation

About the social history of Bronx, NY at the time of the creation of Hip Hop

2. Be able to (skills):

Make connections between artistic movements and the social and economic conditions from which they emerge

Consider the complexities and ambiguities of controversial issues

Identify and consider both sides of a debated issue

Integrate information from texts and videos to make thematic connections and create deeper understandings

Make connections between the history of sampling and their own musical experiences

Question and analyze concepts of originality in music and other art forms

Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions on topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Motivational Activity:

1. Ask Students:

Have you ever heard of digital sampling? What is it?

Who are some of your favorite contemporary musicians? Do you think they use sampling at all?

Do you think any of your current favorite artists are influenced by any other artists? If so, can you hear who they are influenced by?

2. Play Clip 1, Soundbreaking - Sampling as Natural Human Practice and ask Students:

In what ways was the idea of a "sample" explained in this clip?

Esperanza Spalding suggests that musicians assimilate information and then disseminate it again, but it comes out as "their bag." What do you think Spalding means by this?

Do you "assimilate information or inspiration" in your life? How?

In what ways might you then "disseminate" that information or inspiration again?

Procedure:​

1. This lesson utilizes a "structured academic controversy" format in which students break into two groups, each of which represent one side of a courtroom-style hearing. After breaking your class into groups, distribute Handout 1: Pre-Trial Research for All Groups and have the groups follow the prompt on the sheet.

2. Now distribute Handout 2: Case A, The Marlboro Man and Richard Prince. Explain to your students that Richard Prince is an artist known for "appropriation," the act of using outside source material to create one's own art works. This handout includes a Marlboro cigarette advertisement and the artwork Prince made from it. Follow the prompts on Handout 2 and have students observe the visual examples, gather their pre-trial research using Handout 1, and then proceed with the three phases of trial and discussion as outlined in the "Courtroom" section of Handout 2.

3. Now explain to students that in the 1980s, the digital "sampler" allowed musicians to appropriate music by chopping out sections of recorded tracks with which they could create new recordings. Play Clip 2, Soundbreaking - "Can It Be All So Simple" by the Wu-Tang Clan. Distribute Handout 3: Case B, The Wu-Tang Clan, "Can It Be All So Simple" and have students follow the prompts from Handout 1 to gather their pre-trial research. Then proceed for a second time with the three phases of trial and discussion as outlined on Handout 3.

Summary Activity:

Show Clip 3, Soundbreaking - The Bronx in the 1970s and have your students take notes, focusing on the origins of rap and the people who created it. Ask your students:

In what ways do you think that rap might have been a product of the assimilation and dissemination of various cultural practices, even before sampling evolved as a technology?

Is there anything completely "original" in our lives?

Are there other aspects of life in which you see a form of "sampling"? For instance, consider the idea of sampling as it could apply to the way you dress or speak, or how movies and television shows get made?

Writing Prompts:

1. Sampling can take bits and pieces of existing songs (or other sounds) and recombine them to create a new piece of music. In this way, sampling is a metaphor for a key aspect of American culture that is repeated throughout our nation's history: the combining of elements from different cultures to create something new. Describe another example of this phenomenon, whether in terms of food, music, language, etc. How is your example similar to or divergent from sampling?

2. Ask students to select a song they personally enjoy listening to with a recognizable sample and, if possible, do a little research to identify the origin of the sample(s). (If they can't identify the source(s) on their own, the website whosampled.com is helpful for this research). Then have them respond to the following prompts in writing:

What is the name of the song you selected?

What is the song (or other medium) that is sampled ?

How does the sample contribute to the song-in terms of mood, or rhythm, or style, etc.? How might the song sound or feel different without this sample?

Why do you think the song's producer(s) selected that particular sample?

If students have trouble selecting a song on their own, you can suggest they listen to and research any of the following songs:

"Famous" by Kanye West feat. Rianna and Swizz Beatz. (Samples Nina Simone's "Do What You Gotta Do" and other songs.)

"Hold Up" by Beyoncé. (Samples Andy Williams' "Can't Get Used to Losing You" and other songs.)

"One Dance-Crazy Cousins Remix" by Drake, feat. Wiz Kid and Kyla. (Samples "Do You Mind" by DJ Paleface feat. Kyla)

Extension Activities:

For further exploration of sampling, open the Soundbreaking Sampler TechTool. Follow the prompts from Handout 5 of Sampling: The Foundation of Hip Hop, experimenting with sampling pieces of music and then sequencing them in time.

© 2016 TeachRock

Common Core State Standards
College and Career Readiness Reading Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12 for English Language Arts College and Career Readiness Writing Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12 in English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening for Grades 6-12 College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language for Grades 6-12

Social Studies - National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)

Theme 1: Culture

Theme 2: Time, Continuity, and Change

Theme 3: People, Places, and Environments

Theme 4: Individual, Development and Identity

Theme 7: Production, Distribution, and Consumption

Theme 8: Science, Technology, and Society

National Standards for Music Education
Core Music Standard: Responding Analyze: Analyze how the structure and context of varied musical works inform the response.
Enduring Understanding: Response to music is informed by analyzing context (social, cultural, and historical) and how

Essential Question: How does understanding the structure and context of music inform a response?

Identify and compare the context of music from a variety of genres, cultures, and historical periods. [MU:Re7.2.7b]
Interpret: Support interpretations of musical works that reflect creators'/performers' expressive intent.
Enduring Understanding: Through their use of elements and structures of music, creators and performers provide clues to their expressive intent.

Describe a personal interpretation of contrasting works and explain how creators' and performers' application of the elements of music and expressive qualities, within genres, cultures, and historical periods, convey expressive intent. [MU:Re8.1.7a]
Core Music Standard: Connecting
Connect #11: Relate musical ideas and works with varied context to deepen understanding.

Enduring Understanding: Understanding connections to varied contexts and daily life enhances musicians' creating, performing, and responding.

Essential Question: How do the other arts, other disciplines, contexts, and daily life inform creating, performing, and responding to music?

Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.

National Core Arts Standards
Responding

Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.

Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.

Anchor Standard 9: Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.

Connecting

Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.

Anchor Standards 11: Relate artistic ideas and work with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding.

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What makes a work of art "original," and how does the use of "sampling" technology in Hip Hop challenge perceptions of "originality"? The act of sampling, or using a piece of an existing recording as part of a new recording, has been essential to Hip Hop musicians and producers since the genre's inception in the 1970s.

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Teach Rock Lesson

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Essential Question

Were the Girl Groups of the early 1960s voices of female empowerment or reflections of traditional female roles?

Overview

Tucked between the popularity of the early Rock and Rollers and the mid-1960s British Invasion was the phenomenon known as the "Girl Groups." With names like the Bobbettes, the Shangri-Las, the Ronettes and the Chantelles, they offered a style rich in vocal harmonies that was eagerly embraced by a wide audience.

A number of Girl Group hit songs were co-written by female songwriters, including Carole King, Ellie Greenwich, Cynthia Weil, and Florence Greenberg (who also launched her own record label and whose life served as the basis for the 2011 Broadway musical Baby It's You). If, up to that point, male voices and male songwriters dominated the popular music scene, things were changing. Rock and Roll had a new female sound that produced a string of hits.

The Girl Groups rarely if ever performed material they had written themselves and rarely if ever played the instruments featured on their recordings, a job left to male studio musicians. Lyrically, most of their songs - from the Dixie Cups' "Chapel of Love" to the Angels' "My Boyfriend's Back" - focused on the males in their lives and the promise of a satisfying relationship with that perfect guy. But there was nonetheless something new at work: a female voice was emerging despite it all.

In this lesson, students will evaluate what the emergence of the Girl Groups says about the roles of girls and women in the early 1960s, as the nation sat on the threshold of a new Women's Rights movement that would challenge traditional female roles. In 1963, Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, widely considered a milestone in the emerging feminist movement - and it came at the peak of the Girl Groups' popularity. Did the success of the Girl Groups signal a new female empowerment, under which girls and women could finally come out from the shadows of Rock and Roll and tell the world what was on their minds? Or did the very labels "Girl Group" and "girl singer" and the focus of so many of their songs on the search for the ideal man simply reflect the traditional domestic roles of women as wives and mothers?

Instructors can utilize the materials in this lesson in a variety of ways. It is written in the form of a Structured Academic Controversy (SAC), a teaching strategy similar to debate that focuses on students building consensus rather than on identifying a "winner" who has developed the more convincing argument. However, the instructor may easily use the materials in a more traditional debate format, or simply as the basis for a general class discussion.
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Objectives

1. Know (knowledge):

The musical contributions of important "Girl Groups," including the Shirelles, the Crystals, the Chiffons, the Angels, and the Dixie Cups

The significance of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique

The growing economic power of teenage girls in the late 1950s and early 1960s

Key events of the Women's Rights movement of the 1960s and 70s

2. Be able to (skills):

Analyze the lyrics of popular songs for meaning

Link musical movements with the social and historical circumstances from which they emerged

Evaluate what the music of the Girl Groups says about the roles of girls and women in the late 1950s and early 1960s

Motivational Activity:

1. Display the above image of teen girls in an advertisement from the late 1950s, and discuss the following:​

Who is in the picture? How old do they appear to be?

How would you describe their general appearance? What kinds of activities are they involved in?

How independent do they seem to be? What evidence can you find in the pictures to support your answer?

2. Display the following quote from the essay "Good Culture, Bad Girls," by Susan Douglas, and discuss:
In 1960, the year of the Shirelles' first number-one hit, there were approximately 11.7 million girls between the ages of 12 and 17 in the United States and they were exerting increasing economic clout. The average of four dollars a week a girl received as an allowance was spent on cosmetics, magazines, movies, records and clothes. In an effort to tap into this flow of discretionary income, executives in the culture industry, from film producers to admen, sought to produce music, films, TV shows, ads, and magazines that these girls would buy, both literally and figuratively. The goal, of course, was to cash in on this newly identified market of female 'baby boomers.'

What does the author mean by "economic clout"?

According to the passage, how much money did the average girl receive each week in allowance?

What sorts of things did girls spend this money on?

If you were an executive in the "culture industry" at that time, what things might you have done to market your products to these teenaged girls? Look back at the pictures in the first part of this activity to help with your answer. What kinds of products are the girls using?

Procedure:

1. Divide students into pairs for a "Think-Pair-Share" activity.

2. Distribute Handout 1 - Excerpt of Lyrics for "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes (1963), and play the audio clip of the group performing the song.

3. Ask each pair to discuss the following, and then share sample responses with the class:

What is the song about and from whose perspective is the story told?

The single of the song sold more than 2 million copies in 1963. Why do you think it was so popular? Do you think it would have been as popular if it had been sung by a male group? Why or why not?

Who do you imagine was the target audience for the song?

How are the performers in the photograph dressed? How do you think this compares with the traditional outfits worn by women in the 1950s?

How do this song and its popularity tie in to what was discussed in the opening activity?

4. Distribute Handout 2 - The Feminine Mystique. Ask for a volunteer to read the introduction aloud. Instruct students to highlight key words and phrases as they follow along. Discuss:

What traditional roles for women does Friedan describe? What kinds of things do these women spend most of their time doing?

What are some of the main words Friedan uses to describe women's feelings about their situation? (Likely answers include "dissatisfaction," "yearning," "struggle," etc.)

5. Ask for another volunteer or two to read the excerpt from Chapter 1 of Friedan's book. Discuss:

According to Friedan, what was happening to the age at which young women were getting married in the late 1950s?

What was happening to women's college attendance rates in this period?

What was happening to little girls' fashions? How did these reflect general attitudes toward women's roles?

Does anything about these trends surprise you? Why or why not? Based on your knowledge of this period in American history, why do you think this was happening?

6. Explain that in the remainder of the lesson, students will engage in a Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) in which they will analyze "He's A Rebel," along with other songs of the "Girl Group" era, and consider what they tell us about the roles and attitudes of girls and women in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The SAC will ask students to address this question: Were the Girl Groups of the 1960s voices of female empowerment or a reflection of traditional female roles?

7. Divide students into groups of four. Distribute Handout 3 - Girl Groups Structured Academic Controversy to each group. Briefly explain to students that a Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) is very similar to a debate, except that rather than dividing students into opposing teams whose goal is to win the debate, all students will evaluate arguments on both sides and attempt to come to a consensus as to how to best answer the question.

8. Go over the procedures for the SAC as described in the handout.

9. Distribute Handout 4 - Additional Resources on Girl Groups. Instruct students to use the resources in the packet, as well as the resources already discussed in this lesson (the lyrics and video of "Be My Baby" and "My Guy" and the handout on The Feminine Mystique), for the SAC. You may also wish to show the 1960s Girl Groups video featuring the songs from the packet.

10. Allow groups ample time to complete the SAC.

Summary Activity:

1. Poll sample group responses to the overall question of the SAC (Were the Girl Groups of the 1960s voices of female empowerment or a reflection of traditional female roles?).

2. Discuss:

Do the Girl Groups reflect what Friedan was writing about in The Feminine Mystique? In what ways?

In retrospect, is the "Girl Group era" an appropriate name for the period when the groups discussed in this lesson had their heyday on the charts? Why or why not?

Writing Prompt:

Have students write a one paragraph summary of the best argument developed by the groups, acknowledging any counterarguments and including evidence from the texts examined in class.

Extensions:

1. Teachers of mature students may wish to substitute the Shirelles' 1960 hit song "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" for "Be My Baby" in this lesson. "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" marked the first No. 1 hit for an all-female group on the American charts. It has also proved an enduring song, and has been recorded by numerous subsequent artists. Carole King, who wrote the lyrics, recorded the song in ballad style for her hit 1971 album Tapestry.It is up to the instructor to decide whether "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," which hints at a romantic encounter between the singer and the "you" in the song, is appropriate for his or her students. If used, class discussion might cover the impact of the newfound availability of birth control pills in the United States on women's sexual freedom. Instructors may also wish to have students compare the Shirelles' version to King's later recording, considering the overall mood and effect of each version. Instructors may also wish to address the difference between a group performing a song written by someone else and the artist performing his/her own material. Finally, they may wish to investigate what had changed in the United States that made it commercially viable for a woman to record and perform her own material in 1971, which had not been the case in 1960.

2. Ask students to research specific female musical groups that have emerged since the early 1960s and analyze their impact on female audiences. Students should consider the subjects and themes of the songs recorded by these groups, and whether they mirror those of the 1960s Girl Group or branch out into other territory. Some suggested groups for such an investigation include:

The Pointer Sisters

Salt-n-Pepa

TLC

The Spice Girls

K-Pop groups

Destiny's Child

Common Core State Standards
College and Career Readiness Reading Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12 for Literature and Informational Text

Reading 7: Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

Reading 8: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

College and Career Readiness Writing Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12 in English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects

Writing 1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening for Grades 6-12

Speaking and Listening 1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Social Studies - National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)

Theme 1: Culture

Theme 4: Individual Development and Identity

Theme 5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions

Theme 6: Power, Authority, and Governance

National Standards for Music Education
Core Music Standard: Responding

Select: Choose music appropriate for a specific purpose or context.

Analyze: Analyze how the structure and context of varied musical works inform the response.

Interpret: Support interpretations of musical works that reflect creators' and/or performers' expressive intent.

Evaluate: Support evaluations of musical works and performances based on analysis, interpretation, and established criteria.

Core Music Standard: Connecting

Connecting 11: Relate musical ideas and works to varied contexts and daily life to deepen understanding.

National Core Arts Standards
Responding

Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.

Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.

Anchor Standard 9: Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.

Connecting

Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.

Anchor Standards 11: Relate artistic ideas and work with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding.

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The Rise of the "Girl Groups" - TeachRock

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Were the Girl Groups of the early 1960s voices of female empowerment or reflections of traditional female roles? Tucked between the popularity of the early Rock and Rollers and the mid-1960s British Invasion was the phenomenon known as the "Girl Groups."

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Teach Rock Lesson

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Essential Question

What is cultural appropriation, how does it affect Native American communities, and should it be regulated by law?

Overview

In early 2014, Pharrell Williams was winning. His latest single, "Happy," was in the midst of a 47 week run on the Billboard Hot 100 , 10 of which were at the top. Williams' personality, every bit as outwardly positive as the song "Happy" suggested it might be, was made for TV, and he quickly became the darling of talk shows on the late night, morning, and daytime circuits. Famously, in April 2014 Williams broke down in tears of inspirational joy while discussing the wave of fan interpretations of the song with Oprah Winfrey. Also moved, Oprah suggested the song was so successful, "Because it came from such a clear space that the energy was absolutely uninterrupted by anything other than allowing it to flow from heart to heart."

And then Williams posed on the cover of Elle UK magazine wearing a feathered war bonnet.

As happens in the social media age, many fans, and others, were "#nothappy." To them Williams had become yet another artist guilty of "cultural appropriation." The bonnet, which has origins primarily in Plains Indian tribes, was ceremonial, something earned by a select few, even within those tribes in which it did exist. Some argued that it was a leftover stereotype from the eras of "Buffalo Bill" and Cowboys and Indians, something worn by few that had come to represent all. However, many others disagreed, suggesting that Williams had every right to don the headgear and had been wrongly accused. In response to the uproar, Williams accepted the criticism and issued what, at least to this author, seemed a heartfelt apology.

Once an academic term uttered mostly on university campuses, events like Pharrell's magazine cover on Elle have brought the contentious issue of "cultural appropriation" into public consciousness. The practice, defined by Fordham Law Professor Susan Scafidi as, "Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else's culture without permission...[especially] when the source community is a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways," is viewed by some as a serious issue that deserves legal action. Others, however, believe that "cultural appropriation" is a natural outgrowth of the "melting pot" culture of a place like the United States and that there is nothing negative about it whatsoever. Perhaps no bellwether of the contentiousness behind the term is as telling as the Wikipedia entry for the term, where the open source nature of the site allows anyone to make edits, and they do. "Cultural appropriation" is updated, and also reverted to its previous state almost daily as individuals seek to control the meaning of the concept itself.

In this lesson, students will engage in a structured academic controversy to address the question, "should appropriation of Native American cultural practices be regulated by law?" Working in small groups, students will consider cultural appropriation in varying degrees by watching RUMBLE clips of African American "Mardi Gras Indian Tribes" from New Orleans, viewing images of sports logos, controversial fashion items, and consulting divergent viewpoints in regards to each. Groups will pair off into a "yes" and "no" answer, and support their position with evidence. Then, the groups will switch, and each defend the opposite position. Finally, the class will end with each student drafting a personal response to the activity.
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Objectives

Upon completion of this lesson, students will:

1. Know (knowledge):

The definition of "culture"

Various definitions of "cultural appropriation"

About the debate regarding the validity of the concept of "cultural appropriation"

About specific instances in popular culture labeled as "cultural appropriation"

About the Mardi Gras "Indians" of New Orleans

2. Mastery Objective:
Through textual analysis of divergent viewpoints on cultural appropriation, students will be able to evaluate both sides of the debate and then employ research-based evidence in the statement of their own beliefs about the issue

Motivational Activity:

1. Ask students:
Have you ever heard the term "cultural appropriation"? What do you think it means? Can you give any examples of what might be "cultural appropriation"?

2. Show students Slide 1, "Pharrell Williams, Elle Uk Cover," inform your students that the cover was deeply offensive to some, and that Williams later issued a heartfelt apology about it, and ask:

What about this photo do you think was so offensive to many? Why? How do you feel about it?

Is there any tradition in your life that you feel might be out of place on the cover of a fashion magazine?

Procedure:

1. Tell students that before you can assess the idea of "cultural appropriation," you must address the words separately. Then ask,
How might you define "culture"?

2. Show students Slide 2, "Culture - Oxford Dictionary," and ask:
What might be some examples of things considered "culture" by this definition?

3. Now show students Slide 3, "Appropriate / Appropriation - Oxford Dictionary," and ask:
How might appropriation apply to culture? Can you think of any examples?

4. Show students Slide 4, Fordham law professor Susan Scafidi's definition of cultural appropriation, "Cultural Appropriation Definition," and ask:
Can you think of any examples of cultural appropriation? Do you think that it is an issue that should concern people?

5. Play Clip 1, "'Indians' at Woodstock," and ask:
Why do you think "Indians were in" at Woodstock? What do you think the elements of Native American fashion you saw in this clip might have meant to the people who wore them? (Encourage students to think of what Woodstock represented at the time: freedom, escape from the mainstream, etc. Perhaps the Native American clothing suggested freedom, outsider-ness, and a connection to nature and the past, even if those things were more imagined than real.)

6. Break students into small, even-numbered groups, ideally of four, for the Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) activity. Then divide each group into Side A and Side B. Inform groups that they'll be addressing the question, "Does cultural appropriation negatively affect Native American communities, and should it be regulated by law?" Over the course of the activity, Sides A and B will switch positions, arguing both in the affirmative and the negative.

7. Tell students that they will gather information for the SAC at four stations. Groups should move through the stations as time and space permits, and may begin their journey at any of the four stations. Groups should follow the instructions on Handout 1 - Cultural Appropriation Structured Academic Controversy.

Station 1: Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation

Station 2: Music - Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans

Station 3: Sports Logos

Station 4: Fashion

Summary Activity:

Ask students:

Having taken both sides of this debate, how do you now feel about cultural appropriation? Is there a "yes" or "no" answer to its existence? Does it concern you? Is it always the same, or do you feel differently about the varying ways you see cultural appropriation occur?

Extension Activity:

Look up the term "Hollywood Indian." In a short essay, use two examples of the "Hollywood Indian" to address the idea of cultural appropriation in American cinema and television. How have Native Americans been portrayed? What does the portrayal of Native Americans suggest about the mostly white producers and directors who have written and casted them?

Common Core State Standards
College and Career Readiness Reading Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12 for Literature and Informational Text

Reading 1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text

Reading 7: Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words

Reading 10: Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening for Grades 6-12

Speaking and Listening 1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively

Speaking and Listening 2: Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally

Speaking and Listening 3: Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric

Speaking and Listening 4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience

Speaking and Listening 5: Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations

Speaking and Listening 6: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language for Grades 6-12

Language 1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking

Language 3: Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening

Language 4: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate

Language 5: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings

Language 6: Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression

National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies - National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)

Theme 1: Culture

Theme 2: Time, Continuity, and Change

Theme 4: Individual Development and Identity

Theme 5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions

Theme 9: Global Connections

National Standards for Music Education - National Association for Music Education (NAfME)
Core Music Standard: Responding

Analyze: Analyze how the structure and context of varied musical works inform the response.

Interpret: Support interpretations of musical works that reflect creators' and/or performers' expressive intent.

Evaluate: Support evaluations of musical works and performances based on analysis, interpretation, and established criteria.

Core Music Standard: Connecting

Connecting 11: Relate musical ideas and works to varied contexts and daily life to deepen understanding.

National Core Arts Standards
Responding

Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.

Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.

Anchor Standard 9: Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.

Connecting

Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.

Anchor Standards 11: Relate artistic ideas and work with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding.

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Debating Cultural Appropriation - TeachRock

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What is cultural appropriation, how does it affect Native American communities, and should it be regulated by law? In early 2014, Pharrell Williams was winning. His latest single, "Happy," was in the midst of a 47 week run on the Billboard Hot 100 , 10 of which were at the top.

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Activities Drop-Down Menu enables filtering for Structured Academic Controversies LEssons

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The TeachRock lesson plan collections feature rich, multimedia materials and bring a new kind of energy into learning through music.

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Structured Academic Controversies Lesson Plans

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Through the use of cases and school policy, students will be able to define student privacy rights and then evaluate the necessity and constitutionality of increased security measures in schools, such as cell phone content searches.
Cases: New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985); Board of Education of Independent School District #92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls (2002); Safford Unified School District v. Redding (2009)

This lesson from the Deliberating in a Democracy Minnesota (DIDMN) project teaches deliberation skills that ensure that conflicting views can be heard, understood, and valued, and students will develop the ability to find solutions to important issues. Lesson includes a student reading on the pros and cons of regulation raw milk which is used by small groups as they increase their understanding of the issue.

Engage students in a Structured Academic Controversy in this lesson that focuses on developing deliberation skills using the issue of ethanol (a critical question for Minnesota and the nation and world).

This lesson from Deliberating in a Democracy Minnesota (DIDMN) project teaches deliberation skills that ensure that conflicting views can be heard, understood, and valued, and students will develop the ability to find solutions to important issues. Lesson includes a student reading on farm subsidies which is used by small groups as they increase their understanding of the issue.

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Structured Academic Controversy Archives - Teaching Civics

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Through the use of cases and school policy, students will be able to define student privacy rights and then evaluate the necessity and constitutionality of increased security measures in schools, such as cell phone content searches. Cases: New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985); Board of Education of Independent School District #92 of Pottawatomie County v.

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Socratic Seminar: Supporting Claims and Counterclaims

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Socratic Seminar: Supporting Claims and Counterclaims

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Video

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ELA.W.9-10.1a

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

W: Writing Standards 6-12

9-10: 9th & 10th Grades

1a:
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts,
using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

a. Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or
opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear
relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.

b. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly, supplying evidence for each
while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that
anticipates the audience's knowledge level and concerns.

c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text,
create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons,
between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.

d. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to
the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.

e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports
the argument presented.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

|

ELA.W.9-10.1b

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

W: Writing Standards 6-12

9-10: 9th & 10th Grades

1b:
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts,
using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

a. Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or
opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear
relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.

b. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly, supplying evidence for each
while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that
anticipates the audience's knowledge level and concerns.

c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text,
create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons,
between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.

d. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to
the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.

e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports
the argument presented.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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Thought starters

1. What strategies encourage higher student engagement and individual participation?

2. In what ways do sentence stems help students learn to respectfully express ideas?

3. How might you use a Socratic seminar with the content you are currently teaching?

School Details

High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry
122 Amsterdam Avenue
New York NY 10023

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Socratic Seminar: Supporting Claims and Counterclaims

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High school students work in teams to develop claims and anticipate counter-claims given topics about governmental control and oppression related to their reading of Persepolis. Prior to the debate, students discuss their claims and evidence supporting these claims within their teams and also anticipate counterclaims. Each team member takes notes and prepares to either debate for their team or document interesting arguments that occur during the spoken debate.

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Video

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Video

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ELA.SL.11-12.1a

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

SL: Speaking and Listening Standards 6-\x80\x9312

11-12: 11th & 12th Grades

1a:
Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one on
one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-\x80\x9312 topics,
texts, and issues, building on others'\x80\x99 ideas and expressing their own clearly and
persuasively.

a. Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under
study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts
and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well reasoned
exchange of ideas.

b. Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision making,
set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as
needed.

c. Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe
reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a
topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote
divergent and creative perspectives.

d. Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims,
and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when
possible; and determine what additional information or research is required
to deepen the investigation or complete the task.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. How did Ms. Paraiso adapt the Socratic Seminar format?

2. What strategies does Ms. Paraiso use to help English Language Learners?

3. Why is it helpful to look at everyone's feedback before looking at individual feedback?

Teachers

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Adapting Socratic Seminar: Senior Project Reflection

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12th grade ELA teacher Johanna Paraiso has students adapts the Socratic Seminar format when having her students reflect on their senior research projects and presentations. Before this class, students participated in a culminating presentation. They begin class by reviewing everyone's feedback and discussing what they noticed.

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Science Education Resource Center  @ Carleton College

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higher education :undergraduate (lower division)

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Can it be, Ischomachus, that asking questions is teaching? I am just beginning to see what is behind all your questions. You lead me on by means of things I know, point to things that resemble them, and persuade ...

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How to Teach Structured Academic Controversies

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How to Teach Structured Academic Controversies

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Science Education Resource Center @ Carleton College

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How to Teach with Structured Academic Controversy

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Science educators, either actively or passively, are involved in formulating contemporary cultural views of what constitutes "science." The structured academic controversy technique provides an ...

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Video

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Thought starters

1. How is deliberation different from debate and what are the unique learning outcomes?

2. How can educators help students understand, analyze, and discuss difficult controversial issues?

3. Why do Ms. Robbins and her students feel that an approach like Structured Academic Controversy is a beneficial activity in the classroom?

School Details

Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy

Chicago IL 60628

Teachers

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Instead of debate, try deliberation in your classroom. In a deliberation, students consider the complexity of a difficult controversial issue in our society and prioritize varied perspectives in order to propose solutions to the problem. Watch Liz Robbins use a deliberation approach called Structured Academic Controversy in her Social Studies classroom.

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Structured Academic Controversy

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A discussion that moves students beyond either/or debates to a more nuanced historical synthesis.

By the time students reach adolescence, many believe that every issue comes neatly packaged in a pro/con format, and that the goal of classroom discussion, rather than to understand your opponent, is to defeat him. The SAC method provides an alternative to the "debate mindset" by shifting the goal from winning classroom discussions to understanding alternative positions and formulating historical syntheses. The SAC's structure demands students listen to each other in new ways and guides them into a world of complex and controversial ideas.

The SAC was developed by cooperative learning researchers David and Roger Johnson of the University of Minnesota as a way to provide structure and focus to classroom discussions. Working in pairs and then coming together in four-person teams, students explore a question by reading about and then presenting contrasting positions. Afterwards, they engage in discussion to reach consensus.

1. Choose a historical question that lends itself to contrasting viewpoints. For example, we illustrate the SAC below with the question "Was Abraham Lincoln a racist?" but many other questions lend themselves to the technique. For example, "Was dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary to defeat the Japanese?" or "Could the Constitution have been ratified if slavery had been abolished?" and so on. 2. Find and select two or three documents (primary or secondary sources) that embody each side. (Remember that you can pull these from existing document collections on the web or in print.) 3. Consider timing, make copies of handouts, and plan grouping strategies. The time you will need for a SAC that uses about four documents will depend on the amount of experience your students have with the activity structure and the difficulty and familiarity of the documents. Plan on using about two class periods for your initial SAC.

Modified and adapted countless times by researchers and teachers, the technique has five basic steps ( See Handout 1) with procedures to display for students. 1. Organize students into four-person teams comprised of two dyads. 2. Each dyad reviews materials that represent different positions on a charged issue (e.g., "Was Abraham Lincoln a racist?"). See Handout 2 that helps students track their analysis and prepare their positions. 3. Dyads then come together as a four-person team and present their views to one other, one dyad acting as the presenters, the others as the listeners. 4. Rather than refuting the other position, the listening dyad repeats back to the presenters what they understood. Listeners do not become presenters until the original presenters are fully satisfied that they have been heard and understood. 5. After the sides switch, the dyads abandon their original assignments and work toward reaching consensus. If consensus proves unattainable, the team clarifies where their differences lie.

Students' debate framework starts early and runs deep. Even when told that they need to understand-not undermine-an opposing position, students will try to find holes in their opponent's positions and aim to refute them. We recommend

Introducing the idea of "active listening" to your students and having them practice it in dyads for a few minutes

Establishing the rule: Jot down notes when confused, do not interrupt the presenters

Making sure students can refer to the procedures throughout the activity by posting them or making handouts

As students start to see other perspectives and nuance in the materials, the absence of a certain answer may confuse them. We recommend reassuring students that uncertainty and complexity are expected during this activity. Encourage them to make notes that specify their confusion, new ideas or questions.

Was Abraham Lincoln a racist? Background for the teacher: How we judge people in the past is at the core of historical understanding. Should we think less of Thomas Jefferson because he was a slave owner? How should we regard forms of slavery sanctioned by the Bible? How do we regard people who believed in witches? Or that the ordeal was a way to establish truth? In other words, how do we judge people in the past, people who thought differently from us and perceived the world using different beliefs and assumptions? This question pivots on two opposing stances: first, that there are a set of universal virtues-kindness, fairness, openmindedness, goodness, decency, and tolerance-that transcend time and space. Alternately, the opposing stance sees human virtues as relative, shaped by the dictates of particular settings and circumstances. In this sense, an "enlightened person" looks very different on questions of human decency depending on whether he or she lived in the 13th century, the 19th, or today. Ideas related to the question of how we judge the past will come up in students' conversations. This is how it should be and as directed in the Common Pitfall, students should be encouraged to track these ideas as pairs prepare and present and then to discuss them as they try to reach consensus. In this Structured Academic Controversy, this question of how to judge the past is considered by examining the person and the time of Abraham Lincoln. Specifically we ask, Was Abraham Lincoln a racist?

Racist, n., one who believes that his or her race confers an inherent superiority over others. (Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary)

The two handouts will help you introduce and set up this activity and there are four documents that accompany this SAC. Each dyad should get all four. Acknowledgments. We thank Professor Walter Parker at the University of Washington's College of Education for helping us see the enduring value of the SAC approach in the history classroom.

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A discussion that moves students beyond either/or debates to a more nuanced historical synthesis. By the time students reach adolescence, many believe that every issue comes neatly packaged in a pro/con format, and that the goal of classroom discussion, rather than to understand your opponent, is to defeat him.

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Praticial Strategies to Improve Adaemic Discussions

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Routines that Get Students Talking about Math Strategies

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Routines that Get Students Talking about Math Strategies

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This site includes additional materials available for purchase.

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Most kids find it challenging to explain how they solve math problems and to put what they know about math into words. These ten simple classroom routines can help make math talk a regular part of your day:

1) Start your math block with a strategizing session instead of a traditional warm-up problem.

Rather than having students solve a math problem on their own, have them jot down notes about how they would solve the problem, then pair up with a neighbor to discuss and compare their strategies. When you're ready to bring the whole class together for a discussion, have a few pairs of students share how they'd solve, and invite students to test out their strategies.

2) Occasionally ask students to discuss strategies without actually solving the problem.

Present the math problem and ask students to explain (either orally or in writing) what operation they think they should use (and why), what steps they would take to solve the problem, or which tools could be helpful in solving. This shows students that there's more to math than just finding the right answer: understanding HOW to solve and why a strategy works (or doesn't work) is important, too.

3) Discuss math practices instead of just how a student arrived at an answer.

This can be tricky, so I created over 100 question stems for math practices to help you begin those conversations, as well as a reflection prompt that helps students think holistically about how they used all 8 math practices during a given activity. The prompts go beyond asking students to explain how they arrived at an answer: they require students to reflect on strong math practices and how those practices helped them approach the problem in a systematic, logical way. The prompts also help students reflect on their plan for solving, what happened when they noticed their plan was or wasn't working, how math tools assisted them, patterns they noticed, strategies they used for checking their work, and how they could prove their answer is correct. Click the images below to download a free preview.

4) Bring creativity into problem solving.

Many kids who dislike math are frustrated that there's only one right (and often elusive) answer to a problem, and they don't realize the tremendous amount of freedom and creativity that they have in choosing a problem-solving strategy. When a student explains how s/he arrived at an answer, ask the class, "Does anyone have a different way of solving?" Your enthusiasm for trying out different strategies will lead to students' increased engagement and risk-taking-kids love to hear their teacher say, "Wow, I never thought to solve it that way! Good thinking!"

5) Have kids use math journals to reflect on their strategies and assess their own learning.

Math journals are one of the most powerful tools for having students put their knowledge into words and to shift kids' focus from computation to problem solving and real-life application. Asking students to write about problem solving strategies on a daily or weekly basis gives you so much insight into their understandings and misconceptions. On the Math Journals page, you can learn more about how to easily manage and assess math journals and download free grade level-specific math journal prompts.

6) Have a go-to set of leading questions.

Some of my favorites are: What did you notice when solving this problem? What strategy did you use to get that answer? How do you know your answer is right? Are there any other ways we could solve this problem? These are questions that I ask so often that students can't help but pick up on them and integrate them into their own conversations about math.

7) Push student thinking with good questioning techniques.

If you're not sure where to begin, check out the discussion starters I created to help you facilitate conversations with and between students during problem solving. The PDF has over 150 questions organized into the following categories:

Preparing to solve problems

Stimulating students' thinking

Active listening

Choosing strategies

Analyzing strategies

Responding when students get stuck

Assisting students in talking to one another

Building on student responses in group conversations

Responding supportively to incorrect/incomplete answers

Pushing student thinking on incorrect/incomplete answers

Selecting and analyzing answers

Summing up/reflecting on math work

When using the question stems and prompts during math problem solving activities, you can use just one or two questions and have students delve deeply into them through written reflections or oral discussions. Or, you might use many of the questions in a single lesson as you facilitate a discussion. Click here to download the item preview which includes 5 pages of tips for having math conversations about problem solving.

8) Use math partner games.

I like to have students explore math concepts through game play for 5-15 minutes every single day. It's a great way to break up instruction during long math blocks or kick off shorter math blocks and prepare kids for the day's lesson. I pair them up with a partner of similar ability and have them play an open-ended game that allows them to construct their own knowledge about whichever math skill we're currently learning about. They have to discuss strategies with their partner throughout the game, and typically I give students a discussion prompt to use at the end, as well. And because all the students are playing games at the same time, I'm free to walk around the room and listen to/guide their conversations about math. Visit the Math Game Routines page to learn more about how I create, organize, and introduce the games to students.

9) Have students create videos or screencasts explaining their strategies.

Writing about strategies can be a long, tedious process for some kids, but using a free app like Show Me (or another program/app that lets kids record their voices and the screen) is fun, easy, and quick. Students simply solve the problem by writing on the iPad with their finger and narrate what they're doing. Have students watch each other's videos and compare/contrast their approaches, or give parents the link and encourage them to talk with their students about the strategies they saw their child model.

10) Have students create posters (digital or otherwise) that demonstrate all the different ways a problem can be solved, and refer to them often.

These can be large bulletin board displays that are added to throughout the year, or something that students create individually and keep in their math notebooks or journals. As you introduce a skill (such as 2 digit addition, multiplication, or dividing with remainders), have students start a chart or poster that lists the first strategy you teach, and then add more strategies as they're taught (or even better, discovered by the kids themselves.)
What routines or activities do you use to help students discuss and write about math strategies? Please share your ideas in the comments!
My Favorite Math Management Resources on Pinterest

Follow Angela Watson's Teaching Ideas's board Math Classroom Management on Pinterest.

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10 classroom routines that get kids talking (and writing) about math strategies

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Most kids find it challenging to explain how they solve math problems and to put what they know about math into words. These ten simple classroom routines can help make math talk a regular part of your day: 1) Start your math block with a strategizing session instead of a traditional warm-up problem.

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(and some Vocab Acausition)

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Beetles Project

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Collaborative Learning Routines: Focus on ELLs

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Collaborative Learning Routines: Focus on ELLs

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Includes Lin

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4 Steps to Making Rigorous Discussion a Routine

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4 Steps to Making Rigorous Discussion a Routine

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Edutopia

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Curated Tools for Teachers

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Routines for Making Thinking Visible

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Cult of Pedagogy

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
When I worked with student teachers on developing effective lesson plans, one thing I always asked them to revise was the phrase "We will discuss."
We will discuss the video. We will discuss the story. We will discuss our results.
Every time I saw it in a lesson plan, I would add a note: "What format will you use? What questions will you ask? How will you ensure that all students participate?" I was pretty sure that We will discuss actually meant the teacher would do most of the talking; He would throw out a couple of questions like "So what did you think about the video?" or "What was the theme of the story?" and a few students would respond, resulting in something that looked like a discussion, but was ultimately just a conversation between the teacher and a handful of extroverted students; a classic case of Fisheye Teaching.

The problem wasn't them; in most of the classrooms where they'd sat as students, that's exactly what a class discussion looked like. They didn't know any other "formats." I have only ever been familiar with a few myself. But when teachers began contacting me recently asking for a more comprehensive list, I knew it was time to do some serious research.

So here they are: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging. If you've struggled to find effective ways to develop students' speaking and listening skills, this is your lucky day.

I've separated the strategies into three groups. The first batch contains the higher-prep strategies, formats that require teachers to do some planning or gathering of materials ahead of time. Next come the low-prep strategies, which can be used on the fly when you have a few extra minutes or just want your students to get more active. Note that these are not strict categories; it's certainly possible to simplify or add more meat to any of these structures and still make them work. The last group is the ongoing strategies. These are smaller techniques that can be integrated with other instructional strategies and don't really stand alone. For each strategy, you'll find a list of other names it sometimes goes by, a description of its basic structure, and an explanation of variations that exist, if any. To watch each strategy in action, click on its name and a new window will open with a video that demonstrates it.

Enjoy!
a.k.a. Chat Stations
Basic Structure: Stations or posters are set up around the classroom, on the walls or on tables. Small groups of students travel from station to station together, performing some kind of task or responding to a prompt, either of which will result in a conversation.

Variations: Some Gallery Walks stay true to the term gallery, where groups of students create informative posters, then act as tour guides or docents, giving other students a short presentation about their poster and conducting a Q&A about it. In Starr Sackstein's high school classroom, her stations consisted of video tutorials created by the students themselves. Before I knew the term Gallery Walk, I shared a strategy similar to it called Chat Stations, where the teacher prepares discussion prompts or content-related tasks and sets them up around the room for students to visit in small groups.
a.k.a. Values Continuum, Forced Debate, Physical Barometer, This or That
Basic Structure: A statement that has two possible responses-agree or disagree-is read out loud. Depending on whether they agree or disagree with this statement, students move to one side of the room or the other. From that spot, students take turns defending their positions.

Variations: Often a Philosophical Chairs debate will be based around a text or group of texts students have read ahead of time; students are required to cite textual evidence to support their claims and usually hold the texts in their hands during the discussion. Some teachers set up one hot seat to represent each side, and students must take turns in the seat. In less formal variations (which require less prep), a teacher may simply read provocative statements students are likely to disagree on, and a debate can occur spontaneously without a text to refer to (I call this variation This or That in my classroom icebreakers post). Teachers may also opt to offer a continuum of choices, ranging from "Strongly Agree" on one side of the room, all the way to "Strongly Disagree" on the other, and have students place themselves along that continuum based on the strength of their convictions.

Basic Structure: Students are divided into 4 groups. Three of these groups are assigned to represent specific points of view. Members of the fourth group are designated as "provocateurs," tasked with making sure the discussion keeps going and stays challenging. One person from each group (the "speaker") sits in a desk facing speakers from the other groups, so they form a square in the center of the room. Behind each speaker, the remaining group members are seated: two right behind the speaker, then three behind them, and so on, forming a kind of triangle. From above, this would look like a pinwheel. The four speakers introduce and discuss questions they prepared ahead of time (this preparation is done with their groups). After some time passes, new students rotate from the seats behind the speaker into the center seats and continue the conversation.

Variations: When high school English teacher Sarah Brown Wessling introduced this strategy in the featured video (click Pinwheel Discussion above), she used it as a device for talking about literature, where each group represented a different author, plus one provocateur group. But in the comments that follow the video, Wessling adds that she also uses the strategy with non-fiction, where students represent authors of different non-fiction texts or are assigned to take on different perspectives about an issue.
a.k.a. Socratic Circles
Basic Structure: Students prepare by reading a text or group of texts and writing some higher-order discussion questions about the text. On seminar day, students sit in a circle and an introductory, open-ended question is posed by the teacher or student discussion leader. From there, students continue the conversation, prompting one another to support their claims with textual evidence. There is no particular order to how students speak, but they are encouraged to respectfully share the floor with others. Discussion is meant to happen naturally and students do not need to raise their hands to speak. This overview of Socratic Seminar from the website Facing History and Ourselves provides a list of appropriate questions, plus more information about how to prepare for a seminar.

Variations: If students are beginners, the teacher may write the discussion questions, or the question creation can be a joint effort. For larger classes, teachers may need to set up seminars in more of a fishbowl-like arrangement, dividing students into one inner circle that will participate in the discussion, and one outer circle that silently observes, takes notes, and may eventually trade places with those in the inner circle, sometimes all at once, and sometimes by "tapping in" as the urge strikes them.
a.k.a. Affinity Diagramming
Basic Structure: Give students a broad question or problem that is likely to result in lots of different ideas, such as "What were the impacts of the Great Depression?" or "What literary works should every person read?" Have students generate responses by writing ideas on post-it notes (one idea per note) and placing them in no particular arrangement on a wall, whiteboard, or chart paper. Once lots of ideas have been generated, have students begin grouping them into similar categories, then label the categories and discuss why the ideas fit within them, how the categories relate to one another, and so on.

Variations: Some teachers have students do much of this exercise-recording their ideas and arranging them into categories- without talking at first. In other variations, participants are asked to re-combine the ideas into new, different categories after the first round of organization occurs. Often, this activity serves as a good pre-writing exercise, after which students will write some kind of analysis or position paper.
a.k.a. Speed Dating
Basic Structure: Students form two circles, one inside circle and one outside circle. Each student on the inside is paired with a student on the outside; they face each other. The teacher poses a question to the whole group and pairs discuss their responses with each other. Then the teacher signals students to rotate: Students on the outside circle move one space to the right so they are standing in front of a new person (or sitting, as they are in the video). Now the teacher poses a new question, and the process is repeated.

Variations: Instead of two circles, students could also form two straight lines facing one another. Instead of "rotating" to switch partners, one line just slides over one spot, and the leftover person on the end comes around to the beginning of the line. Some teachers use this strategy to have students teach one piece of content to their fellow students, making it less of a discussion strategy and more of a peer teaching format. In fact, many of these protocols could be used for peer teaching as well.

Basic Structure: Another great idea from Sarah Brown Wessling, this is a small-group discussion strategy that gives students exposure to more of their peers' ideas and prevents the stagnation that can happen when a group doesn't happen to have the right chemistry. Students are placed into a few groups of 4-6 students each and are given a discussion question to talk about. After sufficient time has passed for the discussion to develop, one or two students from each group rotate to a different group, while the other group members remain where they are. Once in their new group, they will discuss a different, but related question, and they may also share some of the key points from their last group's conversation. For the next rotation, students who have not rotated before may be chosen to move, resulting in groups that are continually evolving.

Basic Structure: Two students sit facing each other in the center of the room; the remaining students sit in a circle around them. The two central students have a conversation based on a pre-determined topic and often using specific skills the class is practicing (such as asking follow-up questions, paraphrasing, or elaborating on another person's point). Students on the outside observe, take notes, or perform some other discussion-related task assigned by the teacher.

Variations: One variation of this strategy allows students in the outer circle to trade places with those in the fishbowl, doing kind of a relay-style discussion, or they may periodically "coach" the fishbowl talkers from the sidelines. Teachers may also opt to have students in the outside circle grade the participants' conversation with a rubric, then give feedback on what they saw in a debriefing afterward, as mentioned in the featured video.

Basic Structure: One student assumes the role of a book character, significant figure in history, or concept (such as a tornado, an animal, or the Titanic). Sitting in front of the rest of the class, the student responds to classmates' questions while staying in character in that role.

Variations: Give more students the opportunity to be in the hot seat while increasing everyone's participation by having students do hot seat discussions in small groups, where one person per group acts as the "character" and three or four others ask them questions. In another variation, several students could form a panel of different characters, taking questions from the class all together and interacting with one another like guests on a TV talk show.
a.k.a. Pyramid Discussion
Basic Structure: Students begin in pairs, responding to a discussion question only with a single partner. After each person has had a chance to share their ideas, the pair joins another pair, creating a group of four. Pairs share their ideas with the pair they just joined. Next, groups of four join together to form groups of eight, and so on, until the whole class is joined up in one large discussion.

Variations: This structure could simply be used to share ideas on a topic, or students could be required to reach consensus every time they join up with a new group.

Whereas the other formats in this list have a distinct shape-specific activities you do with students-the strategies in this section are more like plug-ins, working discussion into other instructional activities and improving the quality and reach of existing conversations.

One of the limitations of discussion is that rich, face-to-face conversations can only happen when all parties are available, so we're limited to the time we have in class. With a tool like Voxer, those limitations disappear. Like a private voice mailbox that you set up with just one person or a group (but SOOOO much easier), Voxer allows users to have conversations at whatever time is most convenient for each participant. So a group of four students can "discuss" a topic from 3pm until bedtime-asynchronously-each member contributing whenever they have a moment, and if the teacher makes herself part of the group, she can listen in, offer feedback, or contribute her own discussion points. Voxer is also invaluable for collaborating on projects and for having one-on-one discussions with students, parents, and your own colleagues. Like many other educators, Peter DeWitt took a while to really understand the potential of Voxer, but in this EdWeek piece, he explains what turned him around.

A backchannel is a conversation that happens right alongside another activity. The first time I saw a backchannel in action was at my first unconference: While those of us in the audience listened to presenters and watched a few short video clips, a separate screen was up beside the main screen, projecting something called TodaysMeet (update: TodaysMeet has shut down. Use YoTeach! instead.) It looked a lot like those chat rooms from back in the day, basically a blank screen where people would contribute a few lines of text, the lines stacking up one after the other, no other bells or whistles. Anyone in the room could participate in this conversation on their phone, laptop, or tablet, asking questions, offering commentary, and sharing links to related resources without ever interrupting the flow of the presentations. This kind of tool allows for a completely silent discussion, one that doesn't have to move at a super-fast pace, and it gives students who may be reluctant to speak up or who process their thoughts more slowly a chance to fully contribute. For a deeper discussion of how this kind of tool can be used, read this thoughtful overview of using backchannel discussions in the classroom by Edutopia's Beth Holland.
a.k.a. Accountable Talk
Talk moves are sentence frames we supply to our students that help them express ideas and interact with one another in respectful, academically appropriate ways. From kindergarten all the way through college, students can benefit from explicit instruction in the skills of summarizing another person's argument before presenting an alternate view, asking clarifying questions, and expressing agreement or partial agreement with the stance of another participant. Talk moves can be incorporated into any of the other discussion formats listed here.

Whole Brain Teaching is a set of teaching and classroom management methods that has grown in popularity over the past 10 years. One of WBT's foundational techniques is Teach-OK, a peer teaching strategy that begins with the teacher spending a few minutes introducing a concept to the class. Next, the teacher says Teach!, the class responds with Okay!, and pairs of students take turns re-teaching the concept to each other. It's a bit like think-pair-share, but it's faster-paced, it focuses more on re-teaching than general sharing, and students are encouraged to use gestures to animate their discussion. Although WBT is most popular in elementary schools, this featured video shows the creator of WBT, Chris Biffle, using it quite successfully with college students. I have also used Teach-OK with college students, and most of my students said they were happy for a change from the sit-and-listen they were used to in college classrooms.

An oldie but a goodie, think-pair-share can be used any time you want to plug interactivity into a lesson: Simply have students think about their response to a question, form a pair with another person, discuss their response, then share it with the larger group. Because I feel this strategy has so many uses and can be way more powerful than we give it credit for, I devoted a whole post to think-pair-share; everything you need to know about it is right there.

TWO MORE YOU'LL LOVE

Since writing this post, I have learned about two more discussion strategies that teachers are finding to be incredibly effective and powerful for getting students to talk, especially about books and other texts:

This protocol has students come up with their own Thoughts, lingering Questions, and Epiphanies from an assigned reading. Teachers who have used this method say it has generated some of the richest conversations they have ever heard from students!

This strategy places students into one-on-one conversations, getting them to learn each others' names better and create a track record of what they talked about. Excellent for classes where you want to assess for discussion and help students get more comfortable with each other.

So what else do you have? I would like to think this is a pretty complete list, but I'm sure more strategies are out there. If you use a discussion strategy that's not mentioned here, please share it below.

Come back for more.
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The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies

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Here they are: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging.

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Strengthening Reasoning, Strengthening Language

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This website has videos of teachers and students using the Talk Moves

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"Everyone tells us we need to teach this way, but no one has shown us how. This shows us how!"

~ teacher at NSTA conference in 2014

"For the first time in over 20 years of teaching, I'm confident that my students understand this. They don't need to memorize formulas or math jingles. They really understand the math."

~ a seventh grade Algebra teacher

"When I do my walk-arounds, I see 100% engagement in high-level math discussion. That's never happened before, and it's exciting."

~ principal in a participating school

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"Everyone tells us we need to teach this way, but no one has shown us how. This shows us how!" ~ teacher at NSTA conference in 2014 "For the first time in over 20 years of teaching, I'm confident that my students understand this. They don't need to memorize formulas or math jingles.

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This is a pirate copy of the companion guide to the website below. It highlights the work with the Talk Moves.

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TpT has ESL Conversation cards with leveled questions and visual supports...my students love them.  Flipgrid is awesome, too!

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A user friendly speaking app. No video element though.lingt

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Flipgrid
Seesaw
i-Movie

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Want to have fun with physics and even "walk on water"? Try making a mixture of cornstarch and water called oobleck. It makes a great science project or is just fun to play with.

Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid; it has properties of both liquids and solids. You can slowly dip your hand into it like a liquid, but if you squeeze the oobleck or punch it, it will feel solid. The name oobleck comes from the Dr. Seuss book, "Bartholomew and the Oobleck." In the story, oobleck, a gooey green substance, fell from the sky and wreaked havoc in the kingdom.

Making oobleck is easy. Here's a recipe:
Oobleck ingredients

1 part water

1.5 to 2 parts cornstarch

Small amount of food coloring (optional)

Mix ingredients

Start with the water in a bowl (or wading pool!) and add the cornstarch a bit at a time.

Keep stirring until it has a gooey consistency. You may want to use your hands.

When the oobleck is just right, slowly add food coloring, if you want. This can be a challenge to get it mixed properly.

Play with it.

Things to do with oobleck

Grab a handful and squeeze it. Let it ooze through your fingers.

Make a puddle and quickly drag your fingers through it.

Put it into a plastic container and shake it or quickly bump it against a table.

Jab at the oobleck and then slowly let your finger sink in.

Roll some oobleck into a ball. It becomes solid, but when you stop moving it, it will melt back into your hand.

Some science projects use oobleck. Experiments you can try include:

Put some oobleck on an old speaker and watch it dance:

Or, put it in a cookie sheet on top of a speaker:

Put a lot of it in a kiddie pool and walk across it:

Tips

Store in an air-tight container. Mix occasionally.

If you put in food coloring, you may notice a little bit of color left on your hands after washing. Don't worry. It should go away in a day or two.

Anything put into the slime can be washed with soap and water.

To dispose of the oobleck, mix it with a lot of hot water to make a very loose slurry. Pour a small amount into the drain while the hot water is running.

Oobleck when dried can be easily vacuumed.

Warnings

Don't drop oobleck on a couch, deck, or sidewalk. It's hard to get off.

Oobleck isn't poisonous, but it tastes awful. Wash your hands after playing. Make sure children are supervised.

Wear old clothes, as oobleck tends to get messy.

Don't worry too much if it gets on something; it will come out with a little water.

Lay a couple newspapers on the floor so it doesn't get all over the floor or table.

Oobleck may solidify if it's not kept wet. If it hardens, just throw it away.

If oobleck is left out too long, it will dry out and turn back to cornstarch.

Related: Oobleck's Weird Properties Demystified

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Want to have fun with physics and even "walk on water"? Try making a mixture of cornstarch and water called oobleck. It makes a great science project or is just fun to play with. Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid; it has properties of both liquids and solids.

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100 Questions that Promote Math Discourse

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100 Questions that Promote Math Discourse

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Can the questions you're asking in the mathematics classroom be answered with a simple "yes" or "no," or do they invite students to deepen their understanding?
Asking better questions can open new doors for students, promoting mathematical thinking and classroom discourse. To help you encourage deeper discussions, here are 100 questions to incorporate into your instruction by Dr. Gladis Kersaint, mathematics expert and advisor for Ready Mathematics.

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100 Questions that Promote Mathematical Discourse

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Can the questions you're asking in the mathematics classroom be answered with a simple "yes" or "no," or do they invite students to deepen their understanding? Asking better questions can open new doors for students, promoting mathematical thinking and classroom discourse.

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Article: Why to Err on Side of Noisy Classrooms

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Article: Why to Err on Side of Noisy Classrooms

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I've always felt a little embarrassed about my classroom management style. I know if many of my colleagues walked in during class - especially at the beginning - they would be appalled. It doesn't look like I'm running a tight ship.

They would probably wonder: Why aren't those kids in their seats when the bell rings? Why doesn't she crack down on side conversations? Doesn't that constant chatter bother her?

Here's the secret: It does bother me, just not as much as it bothers other teachers.

And silence bothers me more.

Of course I want my students to listen and be respectful and make the most of our class time, but I think the costs of cracking down on normal social behavior are just too high, so I don't do it. Instead, I tolerate some talking because I think in the end, most students learn more and enjoy learning more in this relaxed environment. I know I do.

In a perfect classroom, students would voluntarily be seated and prepared when class starts. They would be thinking about yesterday's lesson, eagerly awaiting today's lesson, and ready to ask relevant questions about their (completed) homework.

They would feel connected, safe and valued, and they would be ready to engage.

That's a lot to ask for - especially from a room of 35 9th graders - and it almost never happens. Instead, we often settle for "seated and quiet" because it seems like the next best option.

Unfortunately, the strategies we use to get kids "seated and quiet" have serious drawbacks; they literally squelch kids' personalities. If we prize "quiet" over everything else, students learn that their voices are not valued. They become passive recipients of knowledge, rather than active learners. They feel uncomfortable, and they curb their enthusiasm for learning.

Who wants to engage after being told (in so many words) to sit down and shut up?

Instead of crushing their energy with strict rules, I try to harness it. It takes a long time to develop a workable routine, and some days I regret it - like on Monday, when I wasn't feeling well and the students in my second hour just wouldn't settle down - but other days it is beautiful.

On Tuesday, I was explaining the types of unemployment to the same class of 9th graders, and rather than passively recording the definitions and tuning out, they started firing away questions about structural unemployment.
Shouldn't we worry about jobs that are lost to creative destruction? What kinds of jobs will be left if we automate everything? Does it help our economy if we use robots but have more unemployment? What will happen to our economy if wealth is concentrated in the hands of business owners? What can I study in college to make sure I can't be replaced?
Every response sparked more follow-up questions (and yes, side conversations), and they literally got fired up about the issue of displaced workers and the future of our economy. They were having fun, and they were totally engaged.

An hour later, my third hour class sat quietly taking notes, not asking questions and merely wanting me to tell them the same information, and I was really disappointed. To an outside observer, that might have looked like the "better" class, but not to me.

I don't want to teach a class full of passive, quiet, empty vessels. I want to foster a love of learning in high-energy adolescents, who bring their own ideas and questions to the table.

Maybe it can be done in a quiet, disciplined setting, but if so, I haven't figured out how. So I'll keep putting up with the chatter - and try to get my other class to talk a little more.

If I can't have the perfect world, I'll always err on the side of a noisy classroom.

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Why err on the side of a noisy classroom

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I've always felt a little embarrassed about my classroom management style. I know if many of my colleagues walked in during class -- especially at the beginning -- they would be appalled. It doesn't look like I'm running a tight ship. They would probably wonder: Why aren't those kids in their seats when the bell...

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Study by Arreaga-Mayer and Perdomo–Rivera

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Study by Arreaga-Mayer and Perdomo–Rivera

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ERIC - Ecobehavioral Analysis of Instruction for At-Risk Language-Minority Students., Elementary School Journal, 1996

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Used an ecobehavioral analysis system in studying a regular and English-as-a-Second-Language classroom to determine the opportunities afforded at-risk language-minority students to acquire and negotiate a second language and academic content. Found a pattern of minimal teacher attention to language development, low student academic engagement, and an emphasis on lecture and whole-class format.

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English Learner Oral Language Production in Middle School Academic Classes

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Zwiers Videos

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Teachers at St. Stephen's Primary School in Newham, London, use a range of classroom techniques to teach the curriculum to children who speak English as second language. Opportunities for speaking and listening are a key focus.

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Thought starters

1. How does this strategy different from other small group seating arrangements?

2. Why does this strategy increase collaboration?

3. How could you adapt this strategy in your classroom?

School Details

South Windsor High School
161 Nevers Rd
South Windsor CT 06074

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Thought starters How does this strategy different from other small group seating arrangements? Why does this strategy increase collaboration? How could you adapt this strategy in your classroom? School Details South Windsor High School 161 Nevers Rd South Windsor CT 06074 Data Provided By: Teachers

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Communicativeness Design and Observation Tool for Lesson Activities

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Communicativeness Design and Observation Tool for Lesson Activities

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Conversation Observation & Analysis Tool (COAT)

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Conversation Observation & Analysis Tool (COAT)

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academic conversation placemat with prompts