S.

Grace Jeffords 24 April 2014 ESOC 5560

Video Analysis Current Sociopolitical Event

Because I want my students to become more well rounded, democratic students, one of my most important practices is implementing a Socratic seminar method of discussion. As students listen to one another, their ideas are sharpened and their minds opened to others beliefs; students should be able to share their beliefs, question one another, and form a more intellectual view of the world around them. It is important to me that my students have practice with discussions so that they may use words to express themselves. By using discussions in my class, my students will understand how to bolster their original ideas, reshape their arguments, or come to a common ground with other students rather than becoming angry and using alternative forms of aggression.

Contextualized Lesson Plan This unit consisted of Enlightenments and Revolutions, spanning from the Enlightenment to the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Because the Enlightenment is the springboard for major revolutions in Europe, I wanted to spend a considerable amount of time discussing ideas from this time period. Because this was a discussion-based lesson, I hoped that students would learn skills in many areas: using social cues to interject opinions, contributing intellectual statements to further discussion, posing additional questions to be examined, being able to base their opinions off of quotes and what the quotes mean, expressing themselves clearly to others, and hearing others opinions and reshaping their arguments. I also hoped that my students might take

away from this lesson an understanding of certain Enlightenment thinkers beliefs. My main goal for my students during this lesson was that they would reflect on the new material we were learning and compare it to current world events.

Video Description Represented in the video is the whole group discussion portion of my lesson. My students had just completed their small group discussions where they tried to make sense of one of the five Enlightenment quotes and the sticky note comments from other students. The type of discussion method I used is called Penny for Your Thoughts each student is given two pennies, and one penny represents a thought to contribute to discussion. All students must use both pennies to get a grade of 100 for participation in the class. As we began discussion, I projected individual quotes that students had looked at onto the board; the group whose quote was projected had the floor to begin explaining it, then others could contribute.

Video Analysis My focus for analysis comes strictly from the student discussions seen on the video. Because I spent nearly half of the class asking my students to silently read and think critically of quotes from the Enlightenment, I wanted to hear their thoughts and open up the floor to everyone. To shape the discussion, I asked my students to consider how these quotes or ideas might be related to modern events around the world. Just as the Enlightenment ideas were the basis for many revolutions in 18th century Europe, they could easily be seen as the ideas that lead to revolutions today. I spend a considerable amount of time in my class introducing current

events to my students, so I wanted to hear their understanding of intellectual ideas as the basis of revolutions. With 34 students, this was my largest class. The students loved sharing their opinions and debating openly and would often ask for days like this. However, it was very difficult for my students to grasp the concept of a discussion wherein students had to listen to others and build upon others contributions. Several times during the video, I had to stop discussion to reiterate the rules. I believe that students had such a difficult time listening to others because their schooling does not traditionally allow for students to build on one anothers ideas, talking about it along the way. Usually, we teach that there is one idea or truth, ask students to accept it, and we move on. Additionally, I think that this misunderstanding and mild confusion in discussion led to other classroom management problems throughout the lesson. Students began giving their own ideas of the purpose of government and how they see that purpose being fulfilled, which was a wonderful starting point for this discussion. As we moved through this, several students began contributing that they felt government was not fulfilling their purpose as described in the quotes, but they failed to shift the conversation or pose a new question that I feel would have benefitted them greatly: what do people do when government does not fulfill its purpose? Reflecting on this, I believe this was my mistake. I should have had the insight as a teacher to facilitate the discussion by asking these difficult questions. Because I wanted so badly for my students to do the discussion on their own, I refused to interfere other than to answer their questions about the process; I realize now that this probably hurt them in the long run. As I grow, I will continue to make these critiques in order to make my facilitation and the discussions better.

Finally, I asked my students explicitly how these Enlightenment quotes relate to modern day by asking them to think about the current events that we study in class. One student made a terrific point by relating a quote on government function to the current riots in Ukraine; another discussed corruption in the Mexican government; other students compared the quotes to the schools administration and rules. While all of these students contributions are valid, I think it is important to reflect on the types of students who made them. The student who spoke of Ukraine has a parent involved in politics in Atlanta; the student who spoke of Mexico has family living in Mexico. Because these students have people for whom they care directly involved in these situations, I believe they felt most compelled or attached to these ideas. While equally important and valid, the two students who discussed school administration are those who are involved in school functions regularly via sports or clubs. I found it interesting that these students, rather than all thinking on a worldwide level, took these Enlightenment ideas very personally and applied it to their individual lives. I think this is more than I could have asked for them to do, and they did it on their own.

Conclusion Overall, I was very well pleased with my students. Peachtree Ridge is on a block schedule, so this bell-to-bell discussion took roughly 90 minutes. They did wonderfully in discussion, and I believe that if I had had more time to prepare them, both my students and me would have been more apt to contribute more. Facilitating discussion is one of the hardest things to do well in a classroom, and I am nowhere close to veteran status. I intend to continue working toward my goals with discussion. As I grow, I will continue to learn to curb discussion with my own thoughts and questions.