Yay for Book Club!!!!!!!! Well, ok, I will admit that I don't read as often as a good librarian should, but I do at times have interest in reading. Personally, I think this weeks readings were my favorite of the semester so far. Back when I was a lovable high school student, I really did love to read, and would read a ton. I was always the one who participated in class discussion in Lit class. Granted, the discussion I participated in did not always have something to do with the topic at hand, but I was still talking! But seriously, I loved lit class.
When my 10th grade lit class discussed the readings that we had, we always discussed them as the entire class. I had never actually heard of the Socratic Seminar. I wish we had approached our readings like that instead of as a whole class, it probably would have been much easier for me to get more out of the readings. Not saying that I didn't get anything out of the readings through our way of analyzing and discussing, just saying that the Socratic Seminar may have been a more interesting way of going about it.
The Tredway article gave a lot of good information and techniques about how to lead and run a Socratic Seminar. It talked about the different seminars conducted at different schools, and how students benefited from those seminars. It also give a quick overview of how the teacher is the facilitator of the seminars and how the teacher is to help the students actively learn through the seminar. It was a useful and to the point article.
I found the Metzger article to be a more in depth piece on Socratic Seminars. She described the experience of her freshmen class in more detail and talked about how her class developed over the length of the course. She started out simple, and as she saw that the students were able to take on more difficult pieces, she progressed and challenged them more. What I really appreciated about Metzger's approach to the seminars was that, even though she was the leader of the seminars, she didn't make it obvious. She participated in the seminars, often sitting in the outer circle, but she didn't try to correct students if they were wrong. She gave the students the opportunity of working out the wrong interpretations and their issues themselves, with little nudges in the right direction when needed. By giving the students the opportunity of realizing when they come to the wrong conclusions, and the opportunity to fix them, Metzger is helping the students actively learn, which was pointed out as a necessity in both her article and in the Tredway piece.
The Hoffert piece strays away from the traditional classroom/high school setting and looks more directly at actual book clubs. Because book clubs are "all the rage" right about now, this is a good article to read to get an idea of how book clubs have changed and how they can be effective. Hoffert addresses the fact that book clubs are no longer just books. Poetry, movies, and plays are also discussed, not just books. I find this to be refreshing and opens up the discussion of themes and ideas to many more possibilities. Each different medium as its own unique way of portraying a theme or plot. Those involved in the book club may find it easier to discuss a theme from, say, a movie, than from a book. I think that book clubs will continue to be popular, because they are a way for friends -- or strangers to get together and share their passion for stories, and or course, have some good (hopefully) food at the same time.
Class: I enjoyed last weeks class because we got a chance to look more closely at McGonigal's talk, and discuss the different aspects of the lecture that she gave. To be honest, it was little hard for me to catch on at first, but with the help of the others in my group, I became more comfortable with the discussion as the class went on. I'm very excited for class in the next couple of weeks, with our own little book clubs forming. It'll be fun to see how everything works, and it will be interesting to see what kinds of things we will be reading and discussing.
Maybe we should all bring snacks to our little book clubs!!!! Pass around a snack sign up sheet in class...yup, good plan.
I'm all for anything with snacks. Provided they aren't all chocolate and nut products.
ReplyDeleteOh, what, article content? Well alright... Yeah, I don't think too many of us did the socratic seminar in school, which is really a shame. And I agree that the teacher as facilitator but not really safety valve is a really cool thing, it's pretty much providing built-in peer feedback, which links to some of the articles earlier. Of course, can't let the kids just stay wrong lol. But it is similar too math, in that if they really just can't get it, you still don't just tell the answer, you only help them work through it so they can do it next time.
I am excited for book club too. It's nice to talk about something I enjoyed (or didn't) to other people who understand what I am refering to.
ReplyDeleteI know libraries are trying to get more people to read, but I am not a fan of all of the new book club ideas. I think it would be a little hard to connect and discuss things if they were of the same theme instead of the same book. Maybe I'm just a little old fashioned.
"But it is similar too math, in that if they really just can't get it, you still don't just tell the answer, you only help them work through it so they can do it next time."<--John, I love this.
ReplyDeleteI may or may not have written this in my own blog, but I agree that the Socratic Seminar with the separate circles is a great way to help make sure every student gets a chance to talk. I read some articles last semester about the benefit of small class sizes, and what it really comes down to is that fewer students means each student has more opportunities to participate. (Which is why the actual class size is different than the student/teacher ratio when there might be some very small classes or some classes with two teachers that skew the data.) In a two-circle SS or any other discussion format that is broken into smaller groups, you're more likely to get everyone to participate. After students have really gotten the hang of this discussion style and don't really need the teacher to ask the questions and call on students, I wonder if it might not be beneficial to break the class into two separate circles (not concentric, but with one on each side of the room) so that all students are participating in discussion the entire time? I see the value of observing, but it still seems a little less "active." I don't know...
I also think it is neat that Metzger mostly stayed out of the discussion and let the students correct themselves when mistakes came up. I think this would be the hardest part for a teacher. Continuing with John's math theme, when I tutored math it was very difficult not to correct the student immediately when they started to make a mistake. I wanted to take over right away, but this wouldn't have helped them learn. If they made the same mistake again without me there, they probably wouldn't notice. Instead I would let them complete the problem. Sometimes they would figure out the mistake on their own before they finished the problem, which was ideal. Other times they wouldn't, but they would get the rest of the problem process right, so I knew what parts they understood and what they didn't. It's much more encouraging to be able to point to things they did right and then mention the problem spots then to just focus on the wrong.
ReplyDeleteI second (third?) your point, Katie: letting students make their own mistakes is hard but good for them. I wonder how that applies in a library reference situation, though; I think you'd have to really balance the instructional value of it with the service-oriented approach that librarians take to reference. I'd like to see people come out of a reference interview with a better idea of how to do things themselves, though, as well as helpful resources. Giving a man a fish versus teaching a man to fish, I guess.
ReplyDelete