We all want our students to take ownership of their learning but as teachers it is sometimes difficult to give up the center stage and let the students take the lead. Our math PD focus this year is student discourse. I know I’m not on the low end of having students discuss with each other. I find opportunities for students to teach each other and I encourage discussions among small groups most class periods. This is a good start, but I know I need to do more. I found a blog post from The Number Twenty Four that talks about how she uses the socratic circle process in her math classroom. I know a little about the socratic process, but until recently had not considered it a tool to be used in my math classroom. I know this is where I would like to take my students, being comfortable discussing a math topic while giving considerations to the ideas and opinions of others. In the post mentioned earlier, the author links to a WONDERFUL website she used to get started. Robert Kaplinsky has lessons that are searchable by Common Core standards and are designed to encourage conversations. I’m not sure how quickly I will jump into this, but I think it will be a great experience for my students and will help them gain a deeper understanding of math concepts. Since I’m at the beginning of this journey, I also welcome thoughts and advice from others who have successfully used the socratic process in their math classroom.
To new adventures…
Infinitely Teaching 