We use a modified version for the Harkness Method to allow diverse learners the opportunity to prepare for and process the discussion questions before class. Accordingly, students are strongly encouraged to check the blog for the guiding question associated with the day's discussion. At-home note-taking should be titled with the topic of the guiding question and relevant textual quotes noting the page number and column or paragraph (56, left or 56, 3rd) included. You will complete self-assessment as often as every other unit.
Learning should be a democratic affair. This class is about ideas, and you will explore them as a group. We will sit together and talk, every day.
What does it sound like?
http://vimeo.com/album/2184207/video/26123162
Check out the next video. And what happened was like a magic I’ve never seen before . . . They had a conversation that they basically moderated on their own. In listening to this large group of kids understand what it meant listen to each other -- ask each other questions, link thoughts onto one another, be patient, not cut each other off, and try to build something together even when they were disagreeing with one another -- was something I’d never experienced.
Check out the next video. And what happened was like a magic I’ve never seen before . . . They had a conversation that they basically moderated on their own. In listening to this large group of kids understand what it meant listen to each other -- ask each other questions, link thoughts onto one another, be patient, not cut each other off, and try to build something together even when they were disagreeing with one another -- was something I’d never experienced.
How will I assess it?
[When I first started teaching, I kept a clipboard full of my writing, my notes.] Now, I start class with an almost blank one. During the class, I write on it. As a discipline to keep me quiet, to make sure I listen, and I write on it because I think my job as a teacher is to help the kids see where they have gone in their discussion. I write down their page numbers, their statements, [and] their quotations. I keep track of who has spoken and who is yet to speak to, so I can help everyone be engaged. So, that’s what the clipboard offers me now. If someone tried to take it from me now, I’d say, “go ahead,” do you want to see what you said? Just because I say it doesn’t mean they know it . . . They have to say it.
Various Harkness resources will be used during the school year to enhance our thinking about our discussion, including the below:
The Table
Time Speaking
Body Language
Student Comments
Assessment Criteria
Exeter
- Use of textual evidence aimed at the question
- Listen to each other (body language, open/closed book/turning pages)
- Ask each other questions
- Participatory, non-dominating, and non-interrupting
- Link thoughts together to build clear themes, even as different interpretations emerge
CASEL Framework: Responsible Decision-Making, Social Awareness, Self-Management
- Preparing in advance of the class meeting by reading through the filter of the prep questions
- Goal setting for quieter (e.g., sticking with your personal benchmark) or dominating (e.g., rule of three) students
- Working to record discussion for later study (recorder, graphic facilitator, personal notes)
Special note: Deductions will be taken for dominating, interrupting, uncivil, or distracting participation or off-task behavior such as Internet surfing, AirPods in ears, texting, or outside work. Students are encouraged to keep tabs on their own daily verbal class participation during Harkness discussions as it occurs to write better self-assessments.
My level of participation during the past unit should be, or has been, rated as:
A. Participates daily using several of the above criteria
B. Participates regularly using a few of the above criteria
C. Participates sporadically using at least one of the above criteria
D. Participates rarely, if ever, but does not distract from discussions
F. Participates rarely, if ever, and also distracts others from discussions
Various Harkness resources will be used during the school year to enhance our thinking about our discussion, including the below:
The Table
Time Speaking
Body Language
Student Comments
Assessment Criteria
Exeter
- Use of textual evidence aimed at the question
- Listen to each other (body language, open/closed book/turning pages)
- Ask each other questions
- Participatory, non-dominating, and non-interrupting
- Link thoughts together to build clear themes, even as different interpretations emerge
CASEL Framework: Responsible Decision-Making, Social Awareness, Self-Management
- Preparing in advance of the class meeting by reading through the filter of the prep questions
- Goal setting for quieter (e.g., sticking with your personal benchmark) or dominating (e.g., rule of three) students
- Working to record discussion for later study (recorder, graphic facilitator, personal notes)
Special note: Deductions will be taken for dominating, interrupting, uncivil, or distracting participation or off-task behavior such as Internet surfing, AirPods in ears, texting, or outside work. Students are encouraged to keep tabs on their own daily verbal class participation during Harkness discussions as it occurs to write better self-assessments.
My level of participation during the past unit should be, or has been, rated as:
A. Participates daily using several of the above criteria
B. Participates regularly using a few of the above criteria
C. Participates sporadically using at least one of the above criteria
D. Participates rarely, if ever, but does not distract from discussions
F. Participates rarely, if ever, and also distracts others from discussions
What should I do if my participation grade is low?
11 Strategies for Increasing Participation
1. Engage in goal setting. When, how, and why do you plan to participate this week? How will it be different from last week? If you tend to be quieter, what goals might you set? Think about steps in a process. What non-verbal ways can you demonstrate your understanding, appreciation, and role in the discussion.
2. When you read, take out some paper, write the assigned blog question(s) at the very top of the page. As you read, when you come across the topics addressed in the question (such as "new monarchs" or "artists" or "history" or "humanism," write down a textual quote or two noting the page number and column or paragraph (56, left or 56, 3rd). Simultaneously, what questions do you have? (Think about our Harkness questioning discussion that had 100% student participation.)
2. When you read, take out some paper, write the assigned blog question(s) at the very top of the page. As you read, when you come across the topics addressed in the question (such as "new monarchs" or "artists" or "history" or "humanism," write down a textual quote or two noting the page number and column or paragraph (56, left or 56, 3rd). Simultaneously, what questions do you have? (Think about our Harkness questioning discussion that had 100% student participation.)
3. Chat with another student in the class about what might be discussed (or a friend or a family member) to brainstorm how you could participate. Make a secret plan with another student to bring each other into the conversation.
4. Send me an email before class with a picture of your bullet point notes responding to the question. (Please only do this IF you are receiving marks of "rarely, if ever, participates"). Partial credit will be considered, depending on quality.
5. Use Crash Course videos on European History. They have short 8-12 minute video tutorials that may serve as a useful pre-reading device, allowing you to get more out of the actual reading.
6. Respond to the comments made by others. Say a student makes a general comment, such as Henry VIII broke off from the Catholic Church, find the reading section where that was discussed and raise the specific evidence.
7. Challenge the reading by examining the text for issues of kaleidoscope or periodization or bias. Or, ask a very general question about the reading. It seems to focus on the elites, but how would this have affected the poor, the peasants, women, etc?
8. Be theatric. Pretend to be someone else or someplace else. In other words, engage in some theatricality or sports-like conduct with the Harkness. This tends to reduce nervousness.
9. Take notes during discussion and summarize a few important points that were made during the discussion. Ask to begin the warm-up summary of the last class.
10. Ask specifically to begin the next class's discussion. (Please only do this IF you are receiving marks of "rarely, if ever, participates").
11. Look up in an online dictionary words you don't know. It could be no one really knows what they mean (such as anachronistic, catholic, provincial). You could make mention of this when someone raises the same text. This happens a lot when reading primary sources such as Pico or Machiavelli, for example.
What
individual actions can you take?
- Prepare. Come to the table ready with observations, assertions and questions.
- Listen carefully. Waiting to enter the discussion is not the same as listening. Keep abreast of the topic at hand. Let your classmate finish phrasing a question or developing an idea before you jump in.
- Don’t address everything to the instructor. Make eye contact with the person whose points you are addressing. Look around the table; let people know that they’re included.
- Use names to focus interaction. Connect your comments to those of others.
- Stick close to the text in discussion. Keep the text open. When appropriate, be prepared to cite specifics in the language of the text to support, challenge or question. The discussion is not a test of memory.
- Collaborate, don’t compete. It is not a debate, but a discussion. Discussion is collaborative: multiple sides work toward shared understanding. Debate is oppositional: opposing sides try to prove each other wrong.
- Don’t raise hands; take turns speaking. It is OK to “pass” occasionally if asked directly to contribute.
- Affirm comments made by other students. Encourage others to clarify or expand ideas that might be foggy. Ask for more information or further explanation. Don’t hesitate to summarize. Discuss ideas rather than one another’s opinions.
- Challenge politely if you disagree. Let any student finish phrasing a question or developing an idea before you jump in. Clarify a difference of opinion first.
- Be sure that the class is content with the exploration of one topic before heading off into new territory. In moments of silence, determine whether the group is wrestling with an idea or passage, or whether to pursue a new line of inquiry. Ask each other: Can we summarize the discussion so far? Did we take it as far as it could go? Are we content?
- Don’t hesitate to summarize a discussion, to understand where you’ve been before you move on.
- You are responsible for the success of the discussion. Prepare and participate thoughtfully. Don’t pretend if you don’t know; admit it and move on.
- If you’re not a reluctant participant, and suspect that you might have a dominant presence at the table, police your own frequency of involvement. Don’t answer every question; don’t jump in at every opportunity. Pull your weight, but not everybody else’s.
- Discussion is not always an evaluation of the text. Topics related to the quality of the text have no place at the table. It’s not a book group. Even if a particular writer is not your favorite, it’s still your job to help the class gain a better understanding of his or her work, not to complain.
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