Final Thoughts

In my book, Speaking of Success, fellow contributor Jack Canfield speaks to a view of change expressed in a formula,  E + R = O.  If the event (E) is seen as something we cannot control or predict, then how can we influence our response (R) in such a way as to influence the outcome (O)?    

One inspirational speaker and thought leader, Dr. Wayne Dyer, indicates, “Change the way you look at things, the things you look at, change.”

Observing an inner circle conversation often invites the metaphoric image of a beach ball of ideas bouncing from one student to the next.  It is like watching the play of one idea bouncing off another while digging below the surface meaning. Concern for the right answer becomes replaced by incidents of lost in thought which ceases to restrict creative thinking, evaluative problem-solving and relationship building. The logical flow of analysis and support of ideas with the text and real life experiences within a Socratic circle encourage students to be creative themselves.

As in the words of one student when asked about Socratic experiences with fellow students in the classroom, “They’ve made me someone I’m proud of.” Confidence, pride, purpose – sounds like changing the way you looks at things, the things (including one’s perspective of self) you look at change, don’t you think?  Bigger question for you as teacher – is this the exception, or the rule?

Asking students following a Socratic Circle conversation “How did your thinking change?” may invite you into their experience as you prompt them to summarize.

In the beginning, what motivated you to originally become a teacher?  Want to see that purpose further manifested in your classrooms? Instead of blaming the events (E), change your responses (R) to change the outcomes, the experience.  You deserve that apple, and then some.

Getting students prepared

  For students who appear unprepared for dialogue or complain text is too difficult, use Socratic questioning, such as “Let’s take a look at the first sentence in this piece of text.  Why do you think the author chose to begin with such a disturbing and vivid image?” [or] “Can anyone say in a sentence or two the main idea of the passage?”  Continue until students devise their own line of questioning and their own topics for discussion.  Using open-ended, low-risk questioning, students can be motivated and encouraged to share, and dialogue ensues.

  Example from Copeland:  “As we get started with this circle, I’ll offer you a starting point for your conversation.  Obviously, the message [the author] is conveying here is firmly grounded in metaphor.  What do you see in your mind when you read these paragraphs? What images is [the author] painting for you?  With that, inside circle, you have about 10 minutes to discuss.  Go.”  [Each inner circle typically begins with a low-risk, open-ended question asked by the teacher or discussion leader.  This type of question helps get the conversation moving and overcome the initial resistance to dialogue.  It serves as a focal point until students identify their own topics and avenues of discussion they would like to explore.]

 Student preparation before dialogue incorporates methods readers use to document the mental work of a reader.  A sample of five suggested annotations appear on top of every Socratic text form (Copeland, 2005, p. 50):

·        Circle and look up any vocabulary words you do not know;

·        Underline key phrases;

·        Keep track of the story or idea as it unfolds;

·        Note word patterns and repetitions, anything that strikes you as confusing or important;

·        Write down questions in margins.

  From reading passively to reading actively, this prompts students to have a conversation with the text.

  Questions become a warehouse of ideas in a Socratic circle.  The ensuing dialogue connects new learning to prior knowledge.  Prior to reading A.E. Housman’s To an Athlete Dying Young, ask students, “Think back over your lives to a situation or relationship that ended in a less than satisfactory manner.”

 If students are not prepared, one option is to cancel the activity for the day, reinforcing in students minds that adequate preparation is essential.  Enough students usually respond the next day prepared and ready to participate.  Attempting to force dialogue when adequate preparation has not taken place is counterproductive and reinforces to students that Socratic circles are nothing but glorified bull sessions.

Next: Final Thoughts

Sample Initiating and Follow-up Questions for the Inner Circle

“Why does the writer use certain phrases and what makes them significant?”

  The initiating question:  Sometimes students have too many ideas and so many things they want to share and ask.  They may have no idea where to begin.  Other students face difficulty waking up their minds, focusing on one particular area of text, when launching the discussion.  The teacher’s initiating question helps students manage these issues. They  help focus student minds and offer a small chunk of common ground from which to begin dialogue.  An initiating question is specific, not general. Not general, for instance, not  “What do you think of this piece?” (students then just talk about what they like or dislike).  Instead, a more specific initiating question, such as  “You’ll notice the word ‘swerve’ is used in both the first and last stanza.  What might Stafford be trying to get you all to think about by repeating this same idea twice in his poem?” This initiating question is based in opinion.  It focuses student attention on meaning the writer is attempting to convey.  It can potentially elicit multiple answers that may conflict with each other.

  If the conversation seems to fizzle out as students have shared their ideas, follow-up with a more general question such as, “Do you see any other examples of words or ideas that are repeated in the poem? This helps the conversation recover and continue.  Matt Copeland prefers a more specific initiating question followed by a more general follow-up question, leaving students with the feeling of being turned loose to explore the text. 

  Beginning with a general initiating question followed by a more specific question suggests to students you are guiding and leading them through the text by hand.

  Open-ended initiating questions eliciting multiple answers help create an environment in which students understand that disagreeing is accepted, healthy, and can often enhance understanding.

Effective initiating (opening) questions can help students find relevance, such as “When you first read this text, what kinds of things did it remind you of?”  [or] “Has anyone been through a situation similar to what is being described in this text?” This helps students identify relevant connections and begin dialogue. 

  The teacher can model a connection to his or her own life which inspires student connections, such as “Every time I read this piece, I think about the movie The Shawshank Redemption and the message of importance of hope that is conveyed at the end.  Can anyone else explain this connection?”

  This combination of initiating and follow-up questions foster a bridge transferring responsibility for classroom learning from the teacher to the student.

Next:  What about students who appear unprepared for the dialogue or complain the text is too difficult?

Preparing questions in advance for inner circle monitoring

As teacher, presenting an effective initiating question and preparing possible follow-up questions in advance become your invitation for students to become a cohesive team through mutual inquiry.  They experience critical analysis, evaluation and creative thinking in their conversation dialogue.  This becomes a fine line for the facilitator of Socratic dialogue to walk.  Teacher initiated questions should serve to help students discover their capacity for self-direction working together to construct meaning from the text, as opposed to merely determining the one, correct interpretation.

 In his book Socratic Circles, Matt Copeland cites three types of questions you can use as a basis for creating  initiating and follow-up questions with the inner circle. The three types of questions include, “What does the author say?” (facts); “What does the author mean?” (interpretation); and “Is it true?” (evaluation). An example of a factual question which provides a low-risk way for students to begin their conversation could be, “Contrasts and opposites play a large role in this poem.  Can you find examples?” This requires more memory and scanning for information than thinking. 

If necessary, then follow up with a question requiring students to do something with the factual information they have just identified.  “What does the author really mean when she says, ‘I’ve heard that before, but not from anyone I cared about?’”  These questions offer multiple answers with which students can agree and disagree and explain their reasons for their opinions.

Evaluative questions ask students to step outside the text and consider the implications of what is being described: “How would you personally handle a situation similar to the one being described by the author?”  Evaluative questions can be very general in nature: “How is this concept important in our own lives?” [or] “Why is this idea something we should care about?”  Usually precede these with a line of lower-risk questions. 

    

 Next tip, what are some examples of good initiating and follow-up questions?

"Monitoring" the Inner Circle - Analogy for the Teacher's Art

In his book Socratic Circles, Matt Copeland identifies the role of the teacher as to  “monitor” the inner circle, and “direct” the outer circle.  When recently discussing this with a teacher, the thought of monitoring a thermostat arose.  Monitor when applied to a thermostat suggests we do what with the thermostat?  How do we monitor a thermostat?  We observe it, and on some (rare) occasion, we adjust it.  But in the act of adjusting, we still let go and let the thermostat do its work.  For the teacher, monitoring the inner circle is the work of the teacher as artist.  Creative tension exists here.  A drama or play draws in an audience with creative tension, and a hopeful resolution by its conclusion for the audience to mull over.  So too, after offering an initiating question to start the inner circle’s conversation, the teacher cannot predict when she or he should “adjust” the inner circle with a follow-up question, or when to share a thought with students as an example of partnering in the collective learning.  But some tips:

(1)    If possible, take advantage of the extra empty chair provided in the inner circle for temporary visitors to contribute.  Otherwise temporarily enter the inner circle by taking a knee between two inner circle members. Avoid if possible talking from your desk or from a traditional standing position elsewhere in the classroom.  Become a part of the domain of the inner circle when monitoring through adjustment. 

(2)    After offering your follow-up question or shared thought, as soon as practical,  withdraw from the inner circle.

Next tip, how does one prepare good initiating and follow-up questions that you may or may not use when making those monitoring decisions about the inner circle conversations?

Sample of Teacher Directing Outer Circle Feedback

In the previous tip, I talked about how the teacher could elicit more encouraging feedback from the outer circle with process tips.  This week's tip integrates occasional actual excerpts from Matt Copeland demonstrating how teacher directing the outer circle process can sound. This gives you more opportunity to compare your current practice when directing your outer circle students through the stages of offering outer circle feedback to the inner circle.  You as teacher experience the stages of your students reflecting, evaluating, and goal-setting (planning), preparatory to these same outer circle students functioning as the next inner circle.

Although some outer circle feedback responses are repetitive, hearing repetition is useful to inner circle students.

I  Hearing outer circle students’ initial comments and suggestions:  Teacher limits most of the teacher input here to questions which guide the outer discussion.  (By the teacher encouraging even reluctant students to speak in the outer circle, in Matt’s experience it often increases their subsequent comfort level and makes them more likely to contribute when they are in the inner circle).  “Ok [student name] you’re first – initial thought or observation.”

II Following initial go-around of observations, teacher leads outer circle in closer examination of some of their initial feedback. “Now let’s go back and talk about a couple of these ideas in a little more detail.  (A) What were some obvious strengths of the group?” If you as teacher noticed something specific in inner circle discussion, by example, you might ask, “What example of leadership did you see in this conversation?” {and follow-up question]  “How did [so and so by name] demonstrate leadership?” “What was particularly effective using this method?”  “How might we be able to use this idea in our own inner circles in the future?” (B)  "What were areas of conversation that could have been improved? What did you see that could have been done better?”  [For example,if an outer circle student indicates only a few inner circle members participated, a follow-up teacher-directed question might be, “Yes…what could this group have done to include a greater number of voices?”

  These teacher questions empower students to make improvements their own.  Feedback the inner circle hears comes from students, not the teacher.  Any stigma of being graded or judged by the teacher remains minimal.  Students see the feedback as helpful.

III  After hearing the initial comments and after exploring a line of Socratic questioning to explore outer circle detailed feedback and the teacher’s personal notes on the inner circle’s dialogue, the teacher can now ask the outer circle to rate the quality of the inner circle’s performance on a scale of one to ten.  Sometimes students can follow their rating with a one sentence explanation.  Ratings give inner circle students immediate feedback on the overall quality of their conversation.  Over time, ratings track their performance and growth. For some, it breeds healthy competition in the classroom.

IV  Goal setting.  After the outer circle has reflected on the performance of the inner circle and offered both feedback and informal assessment, they need to establish specific goals for their own upcoming inner circle dialogue. Let us presume the first inner circle struggled with balanced participation from all members.  The outer circle establishes a goal that addresses the issue.  As teacher you might ask a question like,  “How might we go about creating a more balanced participation?” or “What are some strategies we might use to accomplish more people feeling invited to participate?” 

 When thinking about developing goals which are “SMART,” (Specific, Measurable, Attainable or Achievable, Relevant or Realistic, and characterized with a Timeframe), as teacher you might also ask, “How will we measure whether or not you have been successful with this goal?” or “How will you see your dialogue improve in this area?” (Using another example, “We want to do a better job by referencing the text more often,” the new outer circle then might be asked to tally the number of references made to the text, and the outer circle becoming the new inner circle may even establish a target number to measure their accomplishment of their created goal.

As a result of these first five tips, have you as teacher “directing” the outer circle feedback gained more ideas on how to engage the outer circle students, adapting your own style?  Refer to Matt Copeland’s book Socratic Circles, (previously cited), chapter 5 and the last half of chapter 6, for more details regarding teacher facilitating the outer circle feedback. 

Future tips will focus on teacher “monitoring” the inner circle conversation.

Encouraging more Meaningful Feedback from the Outer Circle

Teachers promote meaningful outer circle feedback by:

1 Praising a profound or insightful comment;

2 Placing requirements on student feedback, such as, “Be specific and detailed in explaining strengths of inner circle and some of the areas that could have been improved;”

3 Varying the place in the circle where teacher begins having students make their initial comments;

4 Temporarily interrupting the flow when a student comment reveals a key moment, like a brief side bar conversation.  One example is comparing the behavior observed with similar behaviors we have seen in previous dialogues;

5 Asking for specific suggestions and strategies for addressing identified weaknesses;

6 Using follow up activities, such as writing a class letter to students in the other circle, about the feedback they were given and the degree to which it helped them understand the quality of the conversation that took place (this helps students see purpose and value in the work they do in the outside circle).

Keep students in the outer circle on-task: notify expectation in advance that each of them will be asked to make an initial comment, then support those expectations through suggestions like those noted above.  Assign each a particular role in the outer circle; with students still new to the process, ask those in outer circle to name three strengths and one area for improvement.

For the rare occasion of students who become overly critical (maybe they enjoy drawing an audience), seek an after-class conference.  Results can include offering the student options in how they participate, giving them a specific role in outer circle, such as observing and commenting in writing on the dialogue of the inner circle.

What favorite question(s) have you asked the outer circle members which seems to open up outer circle participants to sharing observations?