Advocacy in Thought, Speech, and Writing
Socratic Seminar
My students engaged in thinking, speaking, and writing about real-world problems through a Socratic seminar. This instructional activity gives students the opportunity to become advocates through all three modalities. Students completed a Do Now, Socratic seminar research worksheet, and advocacy reflection. The Socratic seminar focused on the Black Lives Matter movement and follows our unit on Black History Month. Black Lives Matter is a movement that started out as a political project and hashtag on social media following the acquittal of George Zimmerman who fatally shot Trayvon Martin, unarmed Black man, while on neighborhood watch patrol. Black Lives Matter highlights the systematic injustices that Black people face in America. The movement tackles real-world problems that Black people experience in America such as police brutality, voter suppression, and wealth inequality. Black Lives Matter pushes for Black people to be able to live with dignity and respect in the democracy and country they helped to create.
This artifact is my lesson plan for my Socratic seminar. The lesson plan focuses on developing my students' understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement. My students thought about, wrote about, and spoke about the Black Lives Matter movement as they completed their Do Now, Socratic seminar research, and reflection. Students were required to use parenthetical citations to properly cite where their evidence is from.
This is my students' Do Now. The questions were developed to activate my students' prior knowledge about the Black Lives Matter movement prior to starting the Socratic seminar.
This artifact is a short informative clip I showed my students to give them a foundational understanding of what Black Lives Matter is. After students viewed the video they engaged in a reading activity as they gathered more evidence about the movement.
This artifact contains the reading sources I selected for this activity. I selected readings that were compelling and accessible to my students. At the top of each reading, I provided my students with the parenthetical citation because this was their first experience citing information in that manner. Students were expected to use the correct parenthetical citation on their worksheet as they identified evidence from the various articles. Article one provided my students with an overview of Black Lives Matter and its purpose, article two examined wealth disparities in the United States, and article three examined police brutality incidents against Black people in the United States.
This artifact contains student work samples. This worksheet was completed before and during the Socratic seminar. Students were required to read through the articles and gather evidence about Black Lives Matters. As students gathered their evidence they were required to cite where the evidence came from.
During the Socratic seminar, 10 students elected to be at the middle table actively discussing while the remaining students sat on the outside and recorded notes from the conversation on their paper. I facilitated this activity, the discussion was driven by my students' questions. My students discussed the Black Lives Matter movement by examining its purpose and goals as a movement. Wealth inequality was a major discussion point for my students. My students were discussing data that shows how inequitable the United States is, the average white (non-Hispanic) household income was over $130,000 while for black families in America the average was just over $9,000 (Burd-Sharps, 2015). Press the play button below to hear my sixth-grade students speak about the real-world problems that Black people experience in America, racism, police brutality, and wealth inequality.
Socratic Seminar
This artifact contains my students' reflections following the Socratic seminar. My students discussed their experience thinking, writing, and speaking about real-world problems associated with the Black Lives Matter movement such as racism, police brutality, and the wealth gap. Two of the student reflections used evidence from the reading and the seminar in their final reflections.
Debate: Should Schools Have Metal Detectors in Them?
My students engaged in a debate that tackles the real-world problem of gun violence and school shootings. Gun violence is a real-world problem that affects Americans every day. Over the last two decades, school shootings have increased in their frequency. Schools now metal detectors, active shooter drills, and stores are even selling bulletproof backpacks. By November of 2019 forty-five school shootings had occurred, averaging just shy of one school shooting per week (Wolfe, 2019). The debate specifically focused on the use of metal detectors in schools, a topic our school district recently discussed. In this activity students thought, wrote, and spoke about real-world problems of school shootings and gun violence from a student perspective as they completed their Do Now, debate worksheet, debated, and reflected.
This artifact is my lesson plan for my debate. The lesson plan focuses on gun violence in America and more specifically the pros and cons of using metal detectors in schools. My students thought about, wrote about, and spoke about the real-world problem of gun violence as they completed their Do Now, debate worksheet, and reflection. Students were required to use parenthetical citations to properly cite where their evidence is from.
This artifact contains my Do Now. The Do Now asks three questions that were developed to activate students' prior knowledge about the topic of gun violence in America.
This artifact contains an emotional interview of a parent of a victim from the 2018 Parkland shooting shortly after the tragedy. This video communicated the seriousness of the topic to my students.
This artifact is the video I showed my students prior to them completing their debate worksheet. This video served as foundational knowledge prior to beginning the debate research.
This artifact contains the reading sources I selected for this activity. I selected readings that provided multiple perspectives and evidence for students. At the top of each reading, I provided my students with the parenthetical citation because this was their first experience citing information in that manner. Students were expected to use the correct parenthetical citation on their worksheet as they identified evidence from the various articles. The first article dives deep into metal detectors and their history as well as their place in school. The second article is shorter and provides a brief list of pros and cons of using metal detectors in schools.
This artifact contains two student work samples. Each student identified their personal stance on the topic, their team's stance on the topic, provided evidence with citations to support their stance and reflected on their stance after completing their research. This artifact demonstrates my students' ability to think and write about real-world problems that affect them, gun violence, school shootings, and metal detectors in schools.
Once all of my students completed their debate worksheet they meet with their debate team, selected their speakers, and finalized their arguments. Press the play button to hear my 7th-grade science students talk about real-world problems that affect them, gun violence, school shootings, and metal detectors in schools. During the debate, students used their debate worksheet as a resource as they supported their arguments with evidence from the text. I have split the debate into three separate clips that capture poignant moments from my students.
This artifact contains my students' reflections following the debate. My students discussed their experience thinking, writing, and speaking about real-world problems associated with gun violence. For my 7th graders, this was their first debate, in addition to learning about the topic students learned how to support their argument with evidence and engage in effective discourse.
References
Burd-Sharps, S., & Rasch, R. (2015). Impact of the US housing crisis on the racial wealth gap across.
generations. Social Science Research Council, 124-51.
Wolfe, E., & Walker, C. (2019, November 19). In 46 weeks this year, there have been 45 school
shootings. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/15/us/2019-us-school-shootings-
trnd/index.html