What happened when I silenced my own voice
and elevated the voice of my students?
It all started with this guy– I mean it started with Socrates.
Socrates was born in 500 BC,
and he believed in the power of questions.
He believed that whatever you wanted to learn or grow or become,
it was founded in question.
Now my story starts a little bit before that, but I do want to start with this note:
"Education is the kindling of the flame, not the filling of a vessel."
And it's at this point that I began to realize
that I was filling vessels instead of lighting a flame.
For a long time, I had been hearing about Socratic seminars
based on Socrates' thought
that everything we learned comes from a question.
I've seen it happening in classrooms all around me,
and I would step inside and from time to time, I would take a look.
There was an inner circle where students would talk and discuss
and use questions to guide their thinking.
There was also an outer circle, and in that outer circle,
students would observe and take notes on the things that they had heard.
Now when I thought about this myself,
I didn't really think that this was a place that I could move.
It made me concerned that the teacher
was giving so much control to the students.
But this is what you have to understand.
I'm a bit of a talker. I just wanted kids to get it.
And so I did a lot of talking and I did a lot of feeling,
and a whole lot of vessels.
But it didn't matter much because there was a little small hole
in the bottom of that vessel, and it was just seeping right on out.
I began to realize that I had to do something different.
I started teaching a college readiness course
and I was flipping through the resources, doing my research,
and once again the Socratic seminar plopped into my lap,
and I said, "Okay. it's time to get rid of my fear of losing control
and try something new."
Here's the deal: I was allowing my own fears keep me
from helping my students reach their greatest potential,
and it was simply time to take a risk,
to step out of the box and to do something different.
At the same time, I had other experiences, that I was dealing with professionally:
technology was just at the reach of my fingers,
and I was beginning to explore tools that changed everything I did,
and changed all the many different ways in the way that I taught.
I began using tools like Doceri and with Doceri,
it allowed me to remove remove myself from my table,
and allowed me to move around the room and sit next to the kids
who needed a little extra TLC during my class.
I began using tools like GradeCam
that allowed me to not only grade the assignments in an automated program,
but then I was able to upload them into the grade book within minutes.
But the biggest impact of using that tech
is that both tools gave me an opportunity to reach my students faster
within the context of my classroom.
So when I considered using the Socratic seminars in the classroom,
I knew for certain that it had to have tech.
Certainly there was a way to take this method of speaking and communicating
and driving questions that supported critical thinking,
there had to be some tech to support that,
So I did some research and I found an article by a teacher
and this teacher had used digital back channels to support her students.
Here's how it works: she had an inner circle
and students talked and used evidence to support their ideas as they always did,
but in the back channel, she had this online back channel
where students essentially would listen to the inner circle,
but then they would communicate with one another as the inner circle was talking.
And I loved it – it was exactly what I wanted:
the perfect blend of research-based strategies and technical integration,
but I also had to change how I taught because remember, I'm a talker.
I put my students in small groups or one-on-one,
and we met and we talked about what they thought about the text.
We spent a couple days doing that and then it was time.
My very first Socratic seminar.
I was still a little nervous, but I had swallowed the fear
and decided that creating an environment where my students led the dialogue
was more important than any fear I might have.
I decided that I really wanted to focus on my students and their speech.
I didn't worry much with the online back channel,
I thought it was a nice way to integrate some tech,
but I really didn't feel like it was going to be the highlight.
I knew that having my kids work in smaller circles and speak
was going to be the key to their success in this seminar.
But I was wrong. I was actually really wrong.
I set out my structure, my inner circle only used the annotated text
and my outer circle, well, they had an online chat room that they participated in,
and what happened in that chat room changed everything.
Because remember, I was focused on the inner circle.
I wanted to hear all the great things they had to say,
but just like everyone here, I had about six to ten students
who were very shy in my class.
I mean if i gave them a grade that was based on their ability to speak,
they would take the zero, and then go home and calculate
how could they still pass my class without ever having to speak in class.
Those kids, the shy kids,
the kids who have nothing to say.
In that Socratic seminar, in that online back channel,
there was a whole nother series of magic that was happening.
My silent kids, my shy students, they began to purposely
run through that back channel, share their ideas, speak up,
and be the voice in the back channel, and I was thrilled.
I didn't know how much insight they had to offer
because they allowed their ability to talk in front of others stop them,
and the back channel gave them that voice.
I also noticed that my kids encouraged one another,
agreed with points that were said, and gave each other the feeling
that even if I'm talking to my classmates in the inner circle,
I still had the support of the outer circle.
And I walked away from that day realizing this is an opportunity to create
academic camaraderie, academic community.
It was an opportunity to allow students to differentiate their experience.
Students sometimes, they just observed,
and then they participated in the back channel.
Some students spoke and they were outspoken in that inner circle
and they drove the questions that were being asked in the inner circle.
Sometimes they really dove into the back channel and engaged with their peers
as they listened to the dialogue that was happening before them,
and sometimes they used those listening ears to encourage others.
This experience changed me and changed everything that I did going forward.
I became sort of a Socratic seminar missionary.
I talk to every single person I can think of about the power of a Socratic seminar.
Now, over time, I moved into a position as an instructional coach,
and I got to spend some time in one of my training sessions
thinking about how I could connect globally using any tool I wanted to.
Well, as usual, I was really excited about Socratic seminars.
It was one of the key things I loved to talk about and that I loved to share,
and it hit me: what if we did a Socratic seminar globally?
Let me take you through this.
When we talk about doing a Socratic seminar globally, we widen the circle,
we make it much bigger, so you have one classroom in one place,
another classroom in another place
(it could be another class, another school, or even another city in the world).
All of those students in that outer circle, they would participate in the back channel.
The inner circle, instead of one circle, you'd have two:
a small circle on one campus, and a small circle on another campus,
and they would participate in rounds of Socratic seminar sessions.
I had the idea, but I also needed some teachers.
I reached out to Chris Weidman and Shania Smith,
on my home campus at the time,
and I said, "Hey, I have this idea. Will you try it out with me?"
And they both agreed that they would.
I met with Shania and Chris several times and we developed a plan.
We decided that we wanted to bring our students together
from these two different states, to talk about our topic.
And what happened that day was magical.
I didn't realize how important it was for students to connect with other people,
other places, to talk and analyze text.
Our students were 100% engaged on both sides.
There was a sense of curiosity here, and at the very end of the seminar,
I noted something very special that happened:
the bell rang, all the kids started clamoring to get their things and leave in both states,
in both classrooms, but at the very end, I had about five or six kids
who were heavily involved in that Socratic seminar that hung back.
They watched the other kids leave the room, and as I observed them, it hit me:
they wanted to know if they were enough.
They wanted to know if they were academically competent enough
to engage in the same conversation with someone else they didn't know.
And that's when I realized that what I was doing
was going to change everything
and every every way that I looked at education.
So my question that I started with is simply this:
What happens when I silence my own voice
and elevate the voices of my students?
Well the first thing that happened is that I realized that connecting globally
has its place in authentic learning.
It gives our students the opportunity to have a real experience.
Very simple language:
"Hey guys we're going to create some questions.
You're going to talk to some peers
and you're going to talk to other folks in other places and share what you think."
Very simple task.
But the benefits of that task are far-reaching.
I also realize the power of voice.
You see when we build these online back channels,
we give our students an opportunity to craft not only their face-to-face voice,
but their digital voice as well.
Check this out: we have one of the biggest events going on right now historically –
we have an impeachment trial happening.
But if you look very closely, all of these correspondents are observing this trial
and they're using a back channel to discuss.
So what does that mean for our students?
Well that means for each one of our students,
every time they participate in an online back channel,
they are giving themselves an opportunity to learn how to become
a White House correspondent, a journalist.
They are learning how to sit at the table with their family on Thanksgiving day,
enjoy a meal, but also they're able to ask the right questions, provide their opinions
with evidence, and think deeply about what's being said around that table.
They're able to work in a boardroom or go have dinner with friends
because they've learned how to craft their words, how to craft their ideas,
and use those ideas to potentially change the world.
So my question for you today,
what are you willing to do to silence yourself
and elevate the voices of your students?