I recently saw Ellin Keene use the "open forum" technique in our district. Since then, I've used it several times in my classroom and it always works. The students sit in a circle so that they can each see every person. (Ellin actually had a silent signal to indicate it was time for Open Forum, which I use.) I describe the format to them like this:
In Open Forum, only one person speaks at a time. So, of course, I know that if you start speaking at the same time as one of your other friends/readers/writers/scholars (choose your own word here), that one of you will stop and wait for another chance to speak. When you're done speaking, say "Does anyone wish to share?" (or sometimes I say "Does anyone else have a question or comment?"). The next person to speak will say "Thank you, ________" and then share. It works beautifully and, as a teacher, you will have the great joy of simply sitting back and listening/observing. I'm not sure what it is about this format, but every time I've used it, my students have had really great discussions filled with deep thinking. We might use it to share our use of a reading strategy at the end of workshop, to simply talk more about a book we loved, to share some of our writing that day. I'm not sure, but I'm thinking maybe there are 2 factors that contribute to it's success. One is that the teacher is not leading the discussion at all, which gives the students a real sense of ownership and a feeling that their ideas are truly worthy of discussion. Two, having them ask their peers to share and then the simple act of saying thank you, I think, helps create a climate of respect and civility. I only saw Ellin do this once, and I thought "it can't be that simple." It is. :) Dana Williams 5th grade teacher My question to you is, first, what kinds of protocol do you set up with your students about discussions? Then, what changes do you make as the year progresses? I have heard of Reciprocal Teaching. Do most of you follow a guideline or just go with the interest of the class? I guess I'm asking how do you encourage students to get to the deeper issues, beyond the surface level questions? (Embedded image moved to file: pic20101.gif) -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
