#1: Reading the World (Speaking & Listening)

I worked with my freshmen group from the start of the school year, and they constantly showed me that high energy could be a double-edged sword. That said, more often than not, in first couple months of teaching this class, student’s were not listening to each other to the level I set for them. The video below shows a typical conversation (here a Socratic seminar) from November/December. You can see that students had more surface-level ideas, and they often talked over one another.

Over time, I adjusted my practice to give students more low-stakes opportunities to express themselves academically and creatively (such as journal entries and reflections). Students then could share their work in a higher-stakes setting. For instance, two months later during my second round of the year, I was able to successfully facilitate a “Hot Seat” dialogue where students took on the roles of characters in the novel You Don’t Know Me. They demonstrated deeper thinking and more respectful behavior. See a clip below:

 

#2: Reading the World (Reading and Writing)

For some additional illustrations about how students in my classes are learning to read the world through reading and writing, see the following resources:

• Let Us See with 9C, where students in the ninth grade published memoirs and essays this year. Particularly in the memoirs, student development is visible from November into April.
• For the juniors, check out the Portraits section to learn all about the Audition, Assemble, Act unit with A Streetcar Named Desire. Students really took charge with acting and learning about drama through performance.