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Destination Professional Development by Alisha Neinfeldt

10/18/2017

Did you know that there are amazing social studies specific travel opportunities that are completely free? I heard about people traveling or visiting different historical sites during past WCSS conferences, but I had not really thought much of it as a personal option. The people who went on these trips were experienced teachers; who had been around the country and world sponsored by these great foundations and historical organizations. At the time, I did not think that I qualified.

Last winter a friend approached me and mentioned that there are many great opportunities out there, and the best part, they were based on scholarship; all you had to do was apply. So I took a chance, picked a few different programs and applied, and then waited until spring to find out if I was going to be selected for one of these amazing opportunities.

When I got the acceptance email, I was so excited that I had been selected to attend the Teacher Institute at Mount Vernon for a week in the summer. How exciting! I was going to get to hang out at our first president’s estate and learn for an entire week! After a few email correspondences with the program leaders, I had my plane ticket booked and was all ready to go.

I arrived at Mount Vernon (that’s right, I stayed at Mount Vernon!) a few hours before the institute began. Arriving early allowed me to check into my room and check out the grounds before the workshop began. I was also lucky enough to run into a few other teachers also there for the institute and made some connections right away.

From the start of the workshop we were immersed into learning activities and guest lectures. We began learning about image analysis and an introduction of George Washington from our expert lecturer, Scott Casper from Maryland University in Baltimore; he was going to be with us the entire week. He was so knowledgeable and passionate about our former president that it was contagious. We were then given a private tour of Washington’s mansion (they even allowed us to take pictures), finished the evening with a reception on the Piazza (fancy name for the back porch), and watched the sunset over the Potomac River.

The second day had an early start, because many of us woke up to watch the sunrise from the Piazza. Let me tell you, it was a breathtaking view. We gathered in the morning and toured the museum and special exhibit about slavery, where we discussed teaching with personal narratives. Learning about people’s individual stories is powerful, and it makes you want to research and learn more about them. In the afternoon, we were given a tour of the library, where we got to see actual documents from Washington’s collection. It was impressive to see how well preserved they were. We then discussed how to break documents down for students and were given an abundance of locations to check out for online archives. Later in the evening we were given a tour of the grist mill and distillery. Our guide was the first historical reenactor we met during our visit. John Anderson, who was the original caretaker of the mill and distillery was there to guide us around the site and answer questions as if we were back in time. He was extremely knowledgeable and never broke character, which made the experience even more enjoyable.

The focus the third day was teaching with objects. After a variety of lectures, we had a panel discussion about learning activities we use in our classrooms. Learning from each other was refreshing, and I started to feel very motivated by hearing teaching discuss new and fresh ideas that could be used in the classroom. The day ended with a great dinner accompanied with music of the Constitution Convention and presented by Dave Hiddlebrand, another historical reenactor who was dressed in his period clothing. Not only did he share his musical talents, he shared techniques how to bring it into the classroom.

The next day we had a group focus of teaching with historical places. The first part of the day we walked the grounds and gardens. We were given many interesting facts and details from George Washington’s notes and ledgers. Actually being able to see the grounds and learn while we were there was very memorable. We were also lucky enough to have lunch with another historical reenactor, Tobias Lear, private sectary of Washington. He shared facts about his life and experiences working with the General. We followed up with lecture and another teaching panel discussion. Later, we took a trip into Washington D.C. for a private U.S. Capital tour, followed by dinner at The Hamilton.

Our final day began with a morning visit to the family tomb and a cemetery dedicated to the enslaved people from the plantation. There we got to pay our respects to and hear individual stories of enslaved people who passed. We also laid a wreath by Washington’s tomb, a very somber experience. We had our final lectures of the workshop discussing Washington’s Farwell Address and his legacy. After a final panel discussion with the group, we ate lunch and said our goodbyes. It was an amazing week, and I learned so many great things that I could bring back to my classroom.

I really started to feel the pressures and stress of teaching in the past few years and loved the experience of traveling for professional development, because it allowed me to be a student and learn again. It filled up my cup, so to speak, and reenergized me for another year in the classroom. This year is off to a great start, and I feel my students are more eager to learn than in the past. Not only did I learn new techniques for the classroom, but I also created lasting friendships with people.

If you are on the fence about traveling for a professional development opportunity, I strongly encourage you to be brave and take the chance; it will be something you will not regret. There are many opportunities out there; you just need to look.

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Elevating Socratic Seminars

10/1/2017

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By Trent Rasmussen

Socratic Seminars develop students’ ability to READ closely, SPEAK precisely, LISTEN attentively, learn COLLABORATIVELY, and THINK deeply. In the spirit of the famous Socrates of antiquity, these Socratic Seminars are driven by student questions. However, educators must purposefully facilitate the pre-, during, and post-Seminar process to guide deep, meaningful content learning. Many educators have heard of, are familiar with, or may even already use Socratic Seminars. Others may already have their tried and true discussion format. Regardless, this article will equip you with simple strategies and ideas to stretch students’ higher order thinking capacities.
   Over the last several years, I have utilized Socratic Seminars within various K-12 settings. The majority of my experience is at the middle school level, but I can personally attest Socratic Seminars have numerous adaptations to make them accessible for any age group, ability level, or subject area. Whatever your educational context, the essential foundations are an engaging text, thorough student preparation, and creativity woven throughout the process. What a joy it is to have students routinely walking out of my classroom after Seminars with the discussion spilling into the hallways and new ideas circulating through their minds long after class is dismissed. My goal is for you and your students to experience the same!

The Nuts and Bolts of a Socratic Seminar
   A Socratic Seminar ideally consists of eight to twelve students in an “inner circle” surrounded by their remaining classmates in an “outer circle”. A “leader” takes charge of facilitating dialogue amongst the inner circle participants. For young or inexperienced participants, I recommend having the teacher lead. But for older and more experienced participants, I encourage selecting a student leader. This is an excellent opportunity for students to exercise academic leadership skills. Many find this harder than expected and some even thrive with this unique classroom role. Regardless of which option you choose, the inner circle will actively discuss the text(s) you assigned for this Seminar with their prepared, and spontaneous, questions while the outer circle performs their listening job. You may choose to have one group in the inner circle for an entire class period or rotate groups part way through. To initially build student interest, I recommend rotating groups at approximately ten to fifteen minutes so each student gets a taste of the action.
   You can rest assured the majority of students are eager to be in the inner circle. But, assigning a specific outer circle listening job not only teaches specific listening skills, it also consistently engages students. Two of my students’ favorite jobs are “Comment Counter” and “Comment Mapper”. These jobs track how the conversation flows and how balanced the talking is. It is a gentle but effective way of helping “conversation dominators” realize they are overbearing and minimizing others’ thoughts. More of a rule than an exception, conversation dominators grow throughout the year to understand the value of listening attentively to their peers. Other outer circle favorites include recorders of the “Most Interesting Comment”, “Most Interesting Question”, and “Best Text Reference”.
You may also want to utilize an option called the “Hot Seat.” This allows an outer circle participant to enter the inner circle to ask or answer one question. Allow only one to three usages of the Hot Seat per student depending on the length of your Seminar. This is a popular add-on, but be careful it doesn’t distract from the actual discussion. As a general principle, be responsive to your class’s personality with the outer circle roles and listen to student ideas. They love to create new additions for your Socratic Seminar repertoire!

It’s All a Part of the Process
   When someone pictures a Socratic Seminar, they are going to imagine something like what was just previously described. However, I will spend the rest of this article explaining how the value of the Seminar goes far beyond the class period where students are circled up. If you want to learn more of the basics, I suggest researching Socratic Seminars on readthinkwrite.org or teachingchannel.org. I also highly recommend attending a workshop with Socratic Seminars International. So with that, let’s dive into the Socratic Seminar process.
Text Selection. The most inspiring and rich Socratic Seminar discussions are a product of thorough planning and preparation, both by the teacher and students. The teacher’s first objective is to find a text that will whet student appetite for thoughtful dialogue about issues, ideas, and values that are highly relevant to their lives and your curriculum. Traditional printed texts are great, but don’t limit yourself. The text could be video, images, or any focal point of your subject area. I have used a wide variety of texts such as the Declaration of Independence and other sentinel primary sources, passages from novels, paintings and images of a major event, and articles about topics such as urban sprawl and water conservation. Keep in mind that text selection can reach any age and any subject.
A simple variation I like is pairing the primary text selection with something short but thought provoking. Aesop’s Fables, a poem/song, or a powerful quote are just a few examples. Pairings add a deeper dimension of thinking to the Socratic Seminar process. Once a text(s) is selected, I always spend a considerable amount of time digging into the text myself. Going through the same process as students helps to better facilitate the process.
   Reading Preparation. The student preparation process can be as simple or complex as you would like. Obviously, students need to read the text before any discussing is done. What I have found to be most effective is utilizing close reading with a strong emphasis on marking up, or annotating, the text. Reading the text multiple times prompts students to pay attention to important explicit ideas and implicit details lurking beneath the text’s surface. Alternately, you can use any reading strategy you have been practicing with students to provide reinforcement and apply the strategy to a meaningful context.
Questioning Strategies. After the initial reading is completed, students need to work on developing good discussion questions for the Seminar. Two basic principles I drill into my students are to ask open-ended questions and connect all questions to the text or topic. Beyond those principles, I utilize a three-tier question formulation system. I train my students to know level one questions have answers found directly in the text, level two questions are answered using critical thinking about the text, and level three questions require critical thinking about the topic of the text.
The basis of an effective Seminar is rooted in level two questions, because they draw students back to the text. You will want to stress this point with students and sufficiently model level two questions until they have the hang of it. Using the Declaration of Independence as an example, a quality level two question might be, “What do you think Jefferson actually meant when he wrote ‘All men are created equal’? What clues in the text could help us understand?” Level three questions elicit the greatest interest level, but a Seminar leader must be sure these questions don’t derail the flow and purpose of the text-based discussion. A level three question to follow up the previous example might be, “Does America really believe all people are equal?” This question doesn’t require the Declaration itself to answer the question, but it certainly relates to the big ideas of the text. As a rule of thumb, I have students prepare three level two and two level three questions for a Seminar.
In my opinion, however, level one questions actually demonstrate the highest level of discussion skill. I have seldom seen level one questions used accordingly in a Seminar. In essence, the skilled participant needs to recognize the group is missing an important text-based fact, draw their attention to it by asking a level one question, and then emphasize the critical nature of the fact with a meaty level two follow-up question. For example, if a group of students isn’t discussing the important phrase of, “All men are created equal”, a student may begin a series of question by asking, “How does Jefferson say all men are created?” Or to take it in a gender-based direction, a student may ask, “Who specifically does Jefferson say is created equal?” Based off of those level one questions, there are a plethora of quality level two questions that could spark a passionate discussion.
Taking the time to teach questioning and discussion skills is essential if you want Socratic Seminars to flourish in your classroom. Trust me. It will be time well spent. I also recognize not everyone will want to use the same questioning terminology or techniques I use, and that is absolutely fine. Just remember to stay consistent with how you teach these skills because it is amazing how eager students are to ask progressively more meaningful questions.
   Pre-Seminar Complexity. There are a few more pre-Seminar options you may want to try out. I often list three to five big ideas from the text we are examining and have students rank them in order from most to least important. This has the effect of focusing students on the major themes present in the text. If you want to ramp up the complexity, have students provide text evidence and a written rationale for their ranking. Another strategy is to have students pre-write an answer to the opening question the leader will use during the Seminar. This is a great way to engage reluctant speakers, because they will have a written answer ready to go. Lastly, my students’ discussion skills grow most when I have them select a personal improvement goal for the Seminar. I am regularly impressed by the ownership students take in their improvements from Seminar to Seminar. Similar to many other aspects of this process, there is not one single way to prepare students for a Socratic Seminar so be creative with how to best prepare students for the context of your class.
   Remember These Rules. I have already described the main happenings of a Socratic Seminar in the Nuts and Bolts section above, but I want to share with you the non-negotiables, or ground rules, for Socratic Seminar discussions (Figure 1). It is imperative students are held to these standards so everyone feels safe sharing in the circle and the discussion stays focused. I prominently display this poster before, during, and after Socratic Seminars. It comes in handy for redirecting students almost every Seminar and is surprisingly effective in promoting reflection and peer accountability. Essentially, the class as a whole doesn’t like the few students who dominate a conversation. Consequently, rule number seven is commonly evoked in the name of conversational balance!
   Keeping Balance. I have mentioned conversational balance a couple times already because it is the biggest and most difficult stumbling block for facilitating excellent Seminars. There are a few fairly effective strategies you can use to combat conversation dominators. As a first option, try pausing the Seminar halfway through and have “select” outer circle jobs report. Be sure the “Comment Counter” shares so the dominators are aware of their actions and can be gently reminded to share the conversation. To further counteract the dominator and involve reluctant speakers, specifically ask a reluctant speaker a question. Say something like, “Billy, we haven’t hear from you yet today. What are your thoughts on Suzie’s question?” This subtly highlights to the whole class the conversation is imbalanced. Even better, many students will pick up your hints and also utilize this strategy on their own. As a last resort, you can “silence” your conversation dominators for a period of time to send a strong message and allow others to become more comfortable discussing the text. By using these strategies, you will see your class consistently improve their conversational balance over the course of the year.
   Assessment. One of the most common questions I get about Socratic Seminars is, “How should you assess it?” If you are brave, don’t assess the actual Seminar discussion. In my experience, placing a comment requirement on students stifles the conversational flow and overall engagement. In addition, evaluating the quality of comments in the moment seems to me nearly impossible. I believe this creates an excellent opportunity to help students appreciate the value of learning for learning’s sake. But obviously something needs to be assessed. To me, it makes the most sense to formatively assess text analysis skills prior to the Seminar. So think of the discussion as instruction where you are the “guide on the side” instead of the “sage on the stage”. After the Seminar, summatively assess using a text-based writing assignment. I have utilized a wide variety of writing prompts ranging across the CCSS scope of informational, argumentative, and narrative writing. I feel strongly that Socratic Seminars are very effective in preparing all students to successfully interact with the text in order to produce their highest quality of writing. Because of the Seminar process, students have been thoroughly exposed to the text, collaborated with others, and had time to reflect on new insights. Consequently, I can say with confidence the pre- and post-Seminar assessment approach results in the highest levels of learning for all students. However, if you really want to assess the Seminar discussion, there is an abundance of Seminar rubric templates floating around out there on the internet.
Reflecting on the Process. After a Socratic Seminar, reflection of some sort is a must. It doesn’t have to be anything extremely involved. Simply have students at least think about how focused the discussion was, the major strengths of the group, and one or two skills needing improvement before the next Seminar. The outer circle job reporting should happen before reflection, and it is absolutely invaluable. Students latch onto the numbers reported out and draw meaningful conclusions from them. Make sure your class utilizes post-Seminar goal setting before heading into the next one. Also keep in mind that it may take your class five to eight Socratic Seminars to fully internalize the Socratic Seminar process. So however well or disastrous (hang in there!) your first Socratic Seminar goes, take time to reflect and continuously improve.
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Parting Thoughts
   Socratic Seminars inherently make students active participants in their learning while the teacher takes on the facilitator role. I recognize taking on the role of “facilitator” makes many uncomfortable. But are we not aiming to cultivate self-directed learners who ask meaningful questions about the world, collaborate to answer them, and develop deeper levels of thinking about relevant issues? If we are and you have never tried Socratic Seminars, I encourage you to take the leap and incorporate them into your classroom for the first time. If you already use Socratic Seminars, I hope you are able to creatively apply some of the ideas and concepts in the article to improve your practice.
Lastly, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has identified the mission of “every child a graduate, college and career ready” by putting focus on developing students’ knowledge, skills, and habits. Without a doubt, the Socratic Seminar process is an exceptional option for strengthening our students’ competencies in all three of those priority areas. When we empower students with the autonomy to collaboratively explore texts rich in issues, ideas, and values, I believe high levels of learning for all students is within reach.

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Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance's Civics Textbook!

10/1/2017

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The Framework of Your Wisconsin Government from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX) is the only textbook that specifically teaches Wisconsin state and local government. Now in its 19th edition, the Framework has been the go-to text for more than 60 years for high school and college teachers, civic groups, and anyone who wants to learn more about how state and local governments operate. WISTAX offers the book in both print and digital versions.
In 11 easy-to- read chapters with full-color photos and graphics, the Framework covers topics including:

Wisconsin history, population and economy;
State constitution, legislative, executive and judicial branches;
State budget and taxes;
Counties, cities, villages, and towns; their organization, duties, and funding sources;
K-12 schools and higher education institution;
Property taxes and other local taxes; and,
NEW in 2017: Native American Tribes and state-tribal relations.

The Framework is highly popular as a supplemental text in high schools to help teachers comply with the Model Academic Standards for civics set by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. The new section on Native American tribal governments can also help meet Act 31 curriculum requirements. WISTAX also offers the Digital Teacher Toolkit, which includes with full-color PowerPoint lectures; student worksheets, quizzes, extended readings, classroom activities, and links to other on-line resources. Prices for the print version begin at $13.95, with deep discounts for quantity orders. For more information, contact the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance at www.wistax.org or call (608) 241-9789.

http://wistax.org/publications/framework-textbook

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"WCSS changed the way I teach and introduced me to fellow teachers that have become tremendous inspirations to me. It has been the most valuable experience in preparing me to be a teacher."
- Justin Glodowski

Destination Professional Development by Alisha Neinfeldt

Elevating Socratic Seminars

Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance's Civics Textbook!

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