Sample 1:

Currency Knowledge

Subjects: Math, Humanities, Computer Science

Grade Level: 7^th

Duration: (3) 5 minute lessons

School: RSCS

Project Details

· Title: Currency Knowledge

· Author: Steve Smith

· Content Area: Math, Humanities, Computer Science

· Essential Question: How does currency affect your household, your peers, and your community

Summary: Currency Knowledge is designed for any level of school instruction. This interdisciplinary unit will engage each student with standard knowledge of currency. The class will create and design one written question about money. The students derive this question from playing a observation game called “Pass the Buck”.

Every student will pass around a dollar coin, a dollar bill, or some denomination of currency. The questions that are created from this observation will be put into a Socratic session of discussion. From this Socratic seminar, they will finish the unit off by playing a game of jeopardy to complete the learning of currency

What Will Students Be Able To Do:

§ The students will be analyzing how currency is made and produced. They will be writing questions about this topic and honing their thoughts and opinions about currency.

§ Each student will be working with linguistic and analytical methods of learning.

§ Students will lead a Socratic session of discussion and derive information from their peers.

§ The class will also learn how to create a PowerPoint that\ can be produced in a game format.

What Will Students Know:

§ The history of currency and how currency is produced.

Student Deliverables:

§ Written questions and answers based on their knowledge of currency

§ Completed rubric for Socratic seminar

Project Documents:

§ Various forms of currency

§ Rubric for Socratic Seminar

§ Jeopardy PowerPoint Presentation

English-language Arts Content Standards: Seventh Grade

Vocabulary and Concept Development

1.2 Use knowledge of Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon roots and affixes to understand content-area vocabulary.

1.3 Clarify word meanings through the use of definition, example, restatement, or contrast.

Comprehension

1.1 Ask probing questions to elicit information, including evidence to support the speaker's claims and conclusions.

1.2 Determine the speaker's attitude toward the subject.

1.3 Respond to persuasive messages with questions, challenges, or affirmations.

Organization and Delivery of Oral Communication

1.4 Organize information to achieve particular purposes and to appeal to the background and interests of the audience.

1.5 Arrange supporting details, reasons, descriptions, and examples effectively and persuasively in relation to the audience.

1.6 Use speaking techniques, including voice modulation, inflection, tempo, enunciation, and eye contact, for effective presentations.

Analysis and Evaluation of Oral and Media Communications

1.7 Provide constructive feedback to speakers concerning the coherence and logic of a speech's content and delivery and its overall impact upon the listener.

1.8 Analyze the effect on the viewer of images, text, and sound in electronic journalism; identify the techniques used to achieve the effects in each instance studied.

Sample 2:

1. WRITE DOWN A QUESTION

ABOUT THE “LEARNING PYRAMID”

(Then pass it to a friend and remember…spelling doesn’t count!)

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Socratic Seminar - Background

"The unexamined life is not worth living." -Socrates

The Socratic method of teaching is based on Socrates' theory that it is more important to enable students to think for themselves than to merely fill their heads with "right" answers. Therefore, he regularly engaged his pupils in dialogues by responding to their questions with questions, instead of answers. This process encourages divergent thinking rather than convergent.

Students are given opportunities to "examine" a common piece of text, whether it is in the form of a novel, poem, art print, or piece of music. After "reading" the common text "like a love letter", open-ended questions are posed.

Open-ended questions allow students to think critically, analyze multiple meanings in text, and express ideas with clarity and confidence. After all, there is a certain degree of emotional safety felt by participants when they understand that this format is based on dialogue and not discussion/debate.

Dialogue is exploratory and involves the suspension of biases and prejudices. Discussion/debate is a transfer of information designed to win an argument and bring closure. Americans are great at discussion/debate. We do not dialogue well. However, once teachers and students learn to dialogue, they find that the ability to ask meaningful questions that stimulate thoughtful interchanges of ideas is more important than "the answer."

Participants in a Socratic Seminar respond to one another with respect by carefully listening instead of interrupting. Students are encouraged to "paraphrase" essential elements of another's ideas before responding, either in support of or in disagreement. Members of the dialogue look each other in the "eyes" and use each other names. This simple act of socialization reinforces appropriate behaviors and promotes team building.

Dialogue is characterized by:

* suspending judgment

* examining our own work without defensiveness

* exposing our reasoning and looking for limits to it

* communicating our underlying assumptions

* exploring viewpoints more broadly and deeply

* being open to disconfirming data

* approaching someone who sees a problem differently not as an adversary, but as a colleague in common pursuit of better solution.

What is the difference between dialogue and debate?

* Dialogue is collaborative: multiple-sides work toward shared understanding.

Debate is oppositional: two opposing sides try to prove each other wrong.

* In dialogue, one listens to understand, to make meaning, and to find common ground.

In debate, one listens to find flaws, to spot differences, and to counter arguments.

* Dialogue enlarges and possibly changes a participant's point of view.

Debate defends assumptions as truth.

* Dialogue creates an open-minded attitude: openness to being wrong and an openness to change.

Debate creates a close-minded attitude, a determination to be right.

* In dialogue, one submits one's best thinking, expecting that other people's reflections will help improve it rather than threaten it.

In debate, one submits one's best thinking and defends it against challenge to show that it is right.

* Dialogue calls for temporarily suspending one's beliefs.

Debate calls for investing wholeheartedly in one's beliefs.

* In dialogue, one searches for strengths in all positions.

In debate, one searches for weaknesses in the other position.

* Dialogue respects all the other participants and seeks not to alienate or offend.

Debate rebuts contrary positions and may belittle or deprecate other participants.

* Dialogue assumes that many people have pieces of answers and that cooperation can lead to a greater understanding.

Debate assumes a single right answer that somebody already has.

* Dialogue remains open-ended.

Debate demands a conclusion.

Guidelines / Expectations for Participants in a Socratic Seminar

1. Refer to the text when needed during the discussion. A seminar is not a test of memory. You are not "learning a subject"; your goal is to understand the ideas, issues, and values reflected in the text.

2. It's OK to "pass" when asked to contribute.

3. Do not participate if you are not prepared. A seminar should not be a bull session.

4. Do not stay confused; ask for clarification.

5. Stick to the point currently under discussion; make notes about ideas you want to come back to.

6. Don't raise hands; take turns speaking.

7. Listen carefully.

8. Speak up so that all can hear you.

9. Talk to each other, not just to the leader or teacher.

10. Discuss ideas rather than each other's opinions.

11. You are responsible for the seminar, even if you don't know it or admit it.

When I am evaluating your Socratic Seminar participation, I ask the following questions about participants. Did they….

Speak loudly and clearly?

Cite reasons and evidence for their statements?

Use the text to find support?

Listen to others respectfully?

Stick with the subject?

Talk to each other, not just to the leader?

Paraphrase accurately?

Ask for help to clear up confusion?

Support each other and avoid hostile exchanges?

Question others in a civil manner?

Seem prepared?

Pre-Seminar Question-Writing:

Before you come to a Socratic Seminar class, please read the assigned text (novel section, poem, essay, article, etc.) and write at least one question in each of the following categories:

WORLD CONNECTION QUESTION:

Write a question connecting the text to the real world.

Example: If you were given only 24 hours to pack your most precious belongings in a backpack and to get ready to leave your hometown, what might you pack? (After reading the first 30 pages of NIGHT).

CLOSE-ENDED QUESTION:

Write a question about the text that will help everyone in the class come to an agreement about events or characters in the text. This question usually has a "correct" answer.

Example: What happened to Hester Pyrnne's husband that she was left alone in Boston without family? (After the first 4 chapters of “THE SCARLET LETTER”).

OPEN-ENDED QUESTION:

Write an insightful question about the text that will require proof and group discussion and "construction of logic" to discover or explore the answer to the question.

Example: Why did Gene hesitate to reveal the truth about the accident to Finny that first day in the infirmary? (After mid-point of A SEPARATE PEACE).

UNIVERSAL THEME/ CORE QUESTION:

Write a question dealing with a theme(s) of the text that will encourage group discussion about the universality of the text.

Example: After reading John Gardner's GRENDEL, can you pick out its existential elements?

LITERARY ANALYSIS QUESTION: Write a question dealing with HOW an author chose to compose a literary piece. How did the author manipulate point of view, characterization, poetic form, archetypal hero patterns, for example?

Example: In MAMA FLORA'S FAMILY, why is it important that the story is told through flashback?