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.