SKill-BAsed Small Groups
Written by Luis Castillo| luis.castillo@uamaker.nyc
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Problem of Practice
Students felt no inclination to talk about the texts that we read in class. My goal this year was to provide differentiation to suit students’ needs both in texts and assessments to generate classroom discussions among students that feel organic and that supports and strengthens their thinking in writing.
Hypothesis
If I target specific students that struggle with specific skill challenges then these students will demonstrate growth. by engaging in group discussions and producing concise and clear writing that is supported by strong textual evidence.
Target group
I mainly targeted students who struggled with participating in Book Talk and Socratic seminars because perhaps they are shy, unprepared, or chronically absent. I expanded to other students in the class because I realized that they could all improve their conversational skills and the quality of writing they would produce from those conversations.
Planning & resources
Reflection
I measured success through a series of benchmarks and goals that I set for myself and my students throughout the year:
BM #1 (Sept. 2023): Students will read and discuss podcast short stories. The goal is to expand students’ definition of a text and to also expose them to a new way of reading and comprehending a text. Many of the podcast stories are modern retellings of classic short stories (i.e. Chopin’s “Desiree's Baby”) that we will also read in class for the purpose of contrasting and comparing both versions.
BM #2 (Dec. 2023): Students’ will participate in weekly literary circles to discuss a full length novel and to push them to start thinking critically about what they read. Students will follow rubrics to self-assess how they are doing in these literary discussions.
BM #3 (Feb. 2024): At this point students will be comfortable talking about the literature that we read and would have practiced their critical thinking and persuasive skills to participate in whole class Socratic Seminars.
BM #4 (May 2024): Towards the end of the school year students will be able to engage in full period Socratic Seminar discussions on the literature we read (short stories or full length novels) where they not only challenge each other’s thinking but also challenge the text itself. Their discussion will produce writing that showcases their critical thinking by coming up with ideas that lend new meaning to the text and that is supported by evidence from the text.
Actionable steps
If you want to use this strategy in your classroom, I recommend …
Throughout the year, I would use visible thinking strategies after discussion of a text as an entrypoint to extensive writing. These Visible Thinking strategies helped in grounding and strengthening student thinking prior to writing an essay. It also helped to organize their thoughts prior to writing, which is a hurdle that many of my students struggled with when it came time to writing about some of the books and stories that we read and discussed in class. Here are some steps to using Visible Thinking Strategies prior to having students write about a text:
Have students talk about a text in pairs or small groups by answering a specific question that challenges their thinking about the text and that also connects to the real world and that you want them to eventually write about.
Use a Visible thinking strategy such as “Claim, Support, Question” or “Reporter’s Notebook” prior to writing to cement their thinking.
Have students transfer all the thinking work they did around the essay question into extensive writing.
Reach out to Luis Castillo if you have any questions, or want support adapting this practice to your classroom!
Email: luis.castillo@uamaker.nyc
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