3-Hour Methods Class

1. SLIDES 1-8: PRESENT INTRODUCTORY SLIDES ON DISCUSSION (10 MIN)

These slides introduce the DISCUSS Philly project and emphasize that discussions are interactive, center student sensemaking, and help build collective knowledge. They can take many forms, but differ in substantial ways from IRE or serial share-outs from groups or individuals. 

2. SLIDE 9: "TURN AND TALK" (10 MIN)

Facilitate a “Turn and Talk” on what teachers finds challenging about making social studies discussion-based by asking: 

  1. What do discussions look like in your classroom? 
  2. What challenges have you encountered when facilitating discussions in the social studies classroom?

As you debrief the turn and talk, you might consider what is surfaced: what beliefs do teachers express about discussion, what goals do teachers have around discussion, how do they tend to conduct discussions, and how confident are they as discussion facilitators? How might the challenges they describe relate to the dilemma theme you have chosen for the workshop? 

3. SLIDES 10-16: PRESENT INTRODUCTORY SLIDES ON DILEMMAS (10 MIN)

These slides emphasize that dilemmas reflect arguments that happen within yourself between two things (goals/beliefs, etc.) that are difficult to resolve. You may never completely resolve them, but you can figure out the source of the tension, and manage your dilemmas more deliberately.  

The Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) is helpful in breaking down the parts of a dilemma, or what makes it challenging. The DSMRI thinks about every person as holding a lot of identities (i.e., daughter, friend, social studies teacher, community theater actor) and that the identity you inhabit in any given moment is dependent on the social role you inhabit in that moment. In this PD, we’re interested in getting inside participants’ teacher role identities, or more specifically, their discussion facilitator role identities. While facilitating a discussion, the DSMRI holds that teachers’ actions are a product of the interplay of four components: their beliefs, their goals, their action possibilities, and their self-perception. In looking at dilemmas today, we are exploring those times when two parts of this identity system are in tension, which produces a dilemma for one of our novice teachers. 

You will see as you advance through the slides an example of a dilemma and that in our slide we have each component of the teacher’s identity pop up one at a time, followed by red or green arrows showing where there are tensions (red) or alignments (green) in the teacher’s identity system. This is to give you as a presenter an opportunity to narrate the dilemma (i.e., “If I’m this teacher I have a goal that ‘I don’t want to talk a lot as I facilitate because I want students to talk’  and a self-perception that ‘I am the sort of teacher who values student voice.’ These are aligned. I’m feeling good as a teacher about this! However, I also have a goal that ‘I want students to use evidence and they’re not using evidence.’ This is in tension with my goal and my self-perception! Oh no! This might be one part of my dilemma… etc..”) 

4. SLIDES 17-18: WALK THROUGH A WEBSITE DILEMMA (30 MIN)

Please select one dilemma ahead of time that you believe might be relevant to the staff you are working with and/or that complements the focus of the professional development session. For some dilemmas, you can see a video of the classroom as the dilemma took place for the teacher, which we suggest watching after reading the dilemma. 

After reading the dilemma and viewing the video, where applicable, start off a discussion of the dilemma by asking your teachers to inhabit the perspective of the teacher presenting the dilemma: 

  • What do you think is going through this teacher’s mind? How do you think they’re feeling and what might be causing them to feel that way? Where is the tension coming up for them? What goals, beliefs, actions and/or self-perceptions might be clashing for this teacher? 

Once you have a chance to inhabit the presenting teacher’s perspective, you can move to teachers’ own perspectives on this dilemma as discussion facilitators and discuss the questions:

  • Even though your situation is different, how does this situation relate to dilemmas you’ve faced?

  • What did you do when facing your dilemma? What were you thinking, feeling, and hoping would happen and how did you see yourself in that moment?

  • Which of those things (your actions, feelings, goals, beliefs, and self-perceptions) aligned with facilitating classroom discussions?

  • Did any of your thoughts, feelings, or actions seem to clash with facilitating classroom discussions, or make doing so more challenging?

  • Looking back, what’s one thing you could try or change to make your classroom discussions go more smoothly in the future?

5. SLIDES 19-20: INDEPENDENT DILEMMA EXPLORATION (20 MIN)

In pairs or small groups have teachers collaboratively read 1-2 dilemmas, viewing the associated videos if available, and discuss them, following the DISCUSS website prompts. 

If you are trying to focus on one theme in your workshop, you may wish to circumscribe teachers’ choice of dilemma to only the dilemmas in this one theme. 

We encourage you to circulate and encourage teachers to explore what the tension at the heart of the dilemma is for the teacher who wrote it (and for themselves when they encounter this dilemma in their classroom) before jumping to what the teacher should DO.  

6. SLIDE 21: REHEARSALS (60 MIN)

A rehearsal is an instructional activity intended to give teachers an opportunity to experiment with a teaching practice before debuting it in front of students. Rather than simply talking about discussion, this class will give teachers an opportunity to do a discussion in the safety of the methods course. Great discussions require teachers to act improvisationally because students have the power to direct the conversation. Rehearsing discussion facilitation, therefore, should not be about creating the perfect “script,” but about creating options, variety, and chances to practice adapting.

To facilitate a rehearsal, a teacher educator can follow these steps:

  1. Provide a shared discussion text
    • Discussions need content and shared evidence is a powerful tool for grounding conversation in collaborative meaning-making. Rather than have every teacher candidate in the methods course plan a separate discussion, methods instructors can save time by using a small number of prepared discussion texts, such as those available on the Digital Inquiry Group website. Beyond saving time, these shared texts are an additional opportunity for candidates to compare instructional decisions.
  2. Have teacher candidates plan to address a specific theme.
    • Before rehearsing, candidates should select a dilemma that they are working through. The dilemmas on this website can serve as inspiration, but the goal is that the rehearsing teacher feels that they are doing something that will authentically help them improve their practice. During the rehearsal, the rehearsing teacher should stay in character and teach, not merely talk about teaching. The rehearsing students should be examples of thoughtful and eager students. Rehearsals work best when the focus is on the intellectual work of teaching and learning.
  3. Rehearsal Round 1
    • For 15 minutes, one candidate should role play as the ‘teacher’ while their peers role play as ‘students.’ As the teacher facilitates a discussion, the methods instructor or one of the candidates can say ‘pause.’ Pausing the rehearsal is an opportunity to note something interesting, to provide live feedback, to probe the teacher’s thinking, or to suggest an alternative pedagogical decision. Methods instructors might pause and ask:
      • “Can you tell me what you’re thinking? What options do you have in this moment?”
      • “Let’s all brainstorm three questions she could ask now. How might each of those questions lead the conversation to a different point?”
      • “Could you try being more prescriptive in this moment? Try saying something like this…”
    • Pauses are used to help the entire room share in moments of pedagogical reflection.
  4. Debrief
    • At the end of the rehearsal, the whole group should discuss what choices they noticed, what surprised them in the rehearsal, other options available, and how the rehearsal addressed the core dilemma.
  5. Rehearsal Round 2
    • For as many repetitions as time allows, candidates can take turns repeating the rehearsal. By allowing candidates to experience the role of both teacher and student, attending to different instructional choices, and focusing on different dilemmas, these rehearsals and debriefs can help create a menu of pedagogical options for future teaching.

7. SLIDE 22: WRAP-UP (10 MIN)

  1. Discuss:
    • In what ways do the dilemma(s) we read about and experienced today resonate with you as a discussion facilitator? Where do the tensions lie as you think about these dilemmas? 
    • How has your thinking about the dilemma of [your focal dilemma] changed over the course of our discussions and rehearsal? What has your attention to be drawn to? What goals/beliefs/actions/self-perceptions has it brought forth as you think about yourself as a discussion facilitator? 
    • What next steps can we take as we experiment with discussion facilitation and try to manage these dilemmas?
  2. Name strategies/key learnings generated from group discussion, set goals for implementation.