I.

Overarching question

How can I student achievement by facilitating discussions?

II. Story of the question: The second part of your writing for Seminar should tell the story of the

question, or put differently, how the question came to matter to you. Personal experiences of

your own or others' teaching are appropriate to include here, as are connections with course

literature (from any of your courses in the program).

I chose this overarching question because of what I have experienced in my UPenn

classes. In our course readings, the topic of discussions amongst students has repeatedly been

stated as highly effective in developing their understanding for the content. I can attest to this

claim based on my own experience at UPenn; Specifically, in Social Studies I retained and can

remember more historical information than I did in my undergrad courses. I believe the reason

for this is because my UPenn Social Studies teachers are modeling what an effective facilitator

does during discussions to encourage higher order thinking amongst the students. In my field

placement, I have also witnessed how discussion amongst students has improved their memory

of the content and given the students the opportunity to dive deeper into the content then a

worksheet or lecture would allow them. After witnessing students deep analysis and dialogue, I

have come to the conclusion that there are necessary steps the facilitator must do to encourage

this higher order thinking to occur.

One of the first steps to designing a lesson plan for facilitating discussions is to recognize

when I am using Deficit Thinking. I recognize Deficit Thinking in education can occur when the

students are not challenged to use the information they are taught in their daily lives, such as in

conversation. Deficit Thinking assumes they would not be able to research important matters and

have a sophisticated conversation with each other about it. The story of my overarching question
came about when I realized a theme amongst my UPenn Education classes: Socratic discussions

can be done with all ages, levels, and languages. It is something we do in our daily lives, except

with the direction of a facilitator who establishes the norms and topics. I want to be able to

facilitate a productive discussion because I know my students are capable. For this reason, I

challenge myself to allow the discussion to be primarily led by the 6th grade students with my

input needed only to redirect, have students expand on an idea, challenge them to find evidence

for their claims, and make sure the environment is safe.

III. Current beliefs regarding the question

In my UPenn class discussions, I have had positive experiences during class discussions.

In Social Studies, as a class we become history-detectives trying to answer a central historical

question. It did not matter how much prior knowledge of the historical subject we had, but rather

it mattered how in depth we thought about the sources and information. In these kinds of

discussions, I learned the most about the historical time periods and could remember the

information later with more details. The discussion did not challenge us on how many facts we

could remember, but rather how critically we could think. Everyones opinion mattered. In my

classes, the teacher facilitated with simple and broad questions. They occasionally chimed into

the discussion with a simple why? or where in the text did you get that? or how do you

know? They let the students explore the material by making connections to their prior

knowledge.

My own philosophy of this overarching question is that using class discussion as a

teaching method stimulates critical thinking. Used on its own, or combined with lectures,

discussion is an effective way to facilitate learning. Discussion can provide the instructor with an

opportunity to assess student understanding of course material. In addition, by introducing their

own observations and questions, students can explore ideas thoroughly. Most importantly,

discussions allow students to actively participate in the learning process. Learning is more

interesting, and students are often more motivated, when they are actively involved in using the

course material. The goals I wanted my students to accomplish are Kohns meaningful standards

of excellence: social reasoning, communication, personal qualities, empirical reasoning, and

quantitative reasoning. These are the qualities of a well-educated individual (What Does It Mean

to be Well-educated by Kohn). My own goals I wanted to accomplish were to create an inclusive

environment, ask important questions, provide direction, and encourage participation.

Final assignment for seminar:

In what ways did your teaching experiences shed light on your original question?

I learned that the teacher must take a passive role in the conversation to allow for students

conversation to be directed at each other, rather than answering a set of questions to the teacher.

By having the conversation with each other, they understand the information as their own rather

than memorizing the correct answer. By witnessing their discussion, I learned that my students

are multidimensional. School is all concrete while the students mind is full of abstract thought.

Students who normally are avid writers but not participators were speaking out more often.

Students who disengage in the ping pong conversation with a teacher were passionately

engaged with their peers. The ping pong conversation with a teacher is what students are used

to: the teacher asks a question, students respond, repeat.

What I learned about my teaching is to see my students as intelligent conservationists, but

also as children who do not like surprises or to take risks in front of their peers. Cold calling on

students who are shyer or have a learning disability is setting them up for anxiety and fear, which

in return clouds their thoughts and they are not able to perform to their best ability. What I

learned to do is focus on providing structure and safety in the conversation. I had the students

come up with norms they needed to feel comfortable and a list of sentence starters to help them

organize their thoughts while being bold and participating. To create a comfortable environment,

the energy I omit must be positive and complimenting. I learned I need to build up the students

confidence in order for them to take the leap into the conversation where their opinions are

vulnerable to critique from other students. An example of this type of positive reinforcement was

when I encouraged participating by complimenting students who spoke out.

A specific facilitating skill I learned was effective questioning. Evidence for using
effective questioning is: Research finds that teacher questions (and cues) are effective when they

focus on what is important, require students to respond at higher levels, provide adequate wait

time after a question is asked, and establish an engaging introduction for the lesson. Effective

questioning can also play a role in focusing students on unit learning goals or overarching

themes throughout a longer period of study (https://www.washoeschools.net). I learned from my

experience that the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why) are effective questions because it

required the students to justify their reasoning and think deeper about their evidence. Asking

these broad and open-ended questions as a passive facilitator kept the students on track and

allows for a multidimensional conversation.

In what ways did your experiences confirm and/or challenge your original beliefs?

My experience confirmed my original belief that using discussions gave the students a deeper

understanding of the content. For example, in my literacy lesson they were required to find

evidence to justify their viewpoint. In both lessons, I used the facilitation strategies I do, we do,

you do. First, I modeled how the discussion should look with including the norms we came up

with together. Then they prepared for the discussion on their own while using each other for

support. Next, as a group we debated what the best solution to stop the cyberbullying was.

Finally, they individually wrote their opinions on the issue.

A challenge to my belief I learned from my experience was that the broad questions, such as

why or how, for comparing fractions were too challenging for that group of students. For

example, what is an example of in our daily lives? I was hoping the students could access

prior knowledge of what looked like in pie or a cell phone battery, but instead they were

confused on the numerical reasoning of what was. As a result, those who volunteered were

incorrect and then felt ashamed for giving the wrong answer. When they became ashamed they
stopped participating. I wanted to encourage them to keep trying, but the risk of giving the

incorrect answer out loud in front of classmates was too great.

In what ways did your experiences change your view of the question? Did your

experiences and analyses raise new questions?

In my experience, new questions arose. For example, in my math lesson I learned that

much more modification is required for different understanding-levels:

How can I engage all levels of understanding in one group discussion?

My answer to this question would be to have smaller groups made of up students with similar

levels of understanding and specific lesson plans. However, with the time constraint of assessing

then planning, this would be extremely difficult to do daily.

Another question that arose during my literacy lesson was:

How do I help my students develop a global perspective?

This came about when I was trying to engage their understanding the impacts the internet can

have all over the world. According to Piagets developmental stages, the age of my students puts

them in the Concrete Stage. This is a major turning point in the childs cognitive development

because it marks the beginning of logical or operational thought. The students are now matured

enough to use logical thought or operations, but can only apply logic to physical objects.

Therefore, maybe the idea of a hypothetical internet post that could have a global impact was too

abstract for them.

Another question that arose was:

How do I encourage collaborative learning amongst peers?

Collaborative learning is based on the theory that knowledge is a social construct. Collaborative

activities are most often based on four principles: (1) the learner or student is the primary focus
of instruction; (2) interaction and "doing" are of primary importance; (3) working in groups is an

important mode of learning; (4) structured approaches to developing solutions to real-world

problems should be incorporated into learning (https://www.washoeschools.net). From further

research, I found that peer teaching/learning is a type of collaborative learning that involves

students working in pairs or small groups to discuss concepts, or find solutions to problems. It

enables learners to take responsibility for reviewing, organizing, and consolidating existing

knowledge and material; understanding its basic structure; filling in the gaps; finding additional

meanings; and reformulating knowledge into new conceptual frameworks. Learning from peers

increases learning both for the students being helped as well as for those giving the help.

(https://www.washoeschools.net)

What light do readings from this course or others shed on your experiences?

Readings from my UPenn courses helped shed light on my experience. For example, in

Salends Chapter 5, Creating an Environment That Fosters Acceptance and Friendship, an

important goal is to teach all students to appreciate diversity and to value and learn from each

others similarities and differences (pg 200). In my example of collaborative learning, the

students showed a sense of mistrusting other students while doing partner-work in my math

lesson. They did not see the importance of learning from each others similar or different

strategies. This is something that needs to be fostered in their classroom regularly in order for

collaborative learning to be effective.

What are the implications of this work for your teaching during Terms IV and V? What

goals do you have for your teaching during these upcoming terms?
 From this experience, I can see where I succeed and where I need improvement. I am

confident that with more experience, I will work out the bumps in my process and answer my

questions which were listed earlier.

Aside from answering the questions that arose from this experience, I have set a new goal

for myself. The goal I have set for myself is to use the method Differentiated Instruction. This

method is designing and delivering instruction to best reach each student. During Terms IV and

V, I will gain more experience observing students own learning strategies. What I hope to do is

use these observations to create lesson plans to best reach them. I want to be able to design

lessons based on students learning styles. Also, I want to learn how to assess students learning

using formative assessment.

What else was important in your learning across these experiences?

Overall, the lessons went well. I think my rapport with the students helped their

confidence and my own. In literacy, we were able to have light hearted banter about the

information we were discussing. They were able to use the topic in reference to their own lives,

which engaged them. I was so happy to see their passion reflected in their responses and

engagement in the debate. An important takeaway from this experience is that curve balls will be

through in school. Students will be absent, my modifications may not work, or students may

interrupt the lesson from another class. What I learned is that it is important to be resilient and

set a good example for the students to not give up.

resources:

(https://www.washoeschools.net/cms/lib08/NV01912265/Centricity/Domain/228/Instructional%

20Strategies%20List%20July%202015.pdf)

Salends Chapter 5, Creating an Environment That Fosters Acceptance and Friendship