CREDE+Sandbox

In an age when following a script has come to replace thoughtful, creative approaches to teaching 2    and students’ attention has been turned from questioning and reflecting to scoring well on multiple standardized tests, 3    this book argues for a different focus. The claim is   that life in school can be more engaging and productive for all—teachers included—if thinking, rooted in questioning, is placed at the center of at least some experiences. What better place than our educational institutions to develop habits of questioning and reflection? 4  Interpretive discussion is carried on by a group of “seekers,” that is, a  group of people who do not know something, who recognize that they do not know it, and who want to find out what they do not know.

Socrates indicates that the goal of the educator is not to put knowledge into a soul but to “turn” the student’s gaze to the proper place, for by looking there, the student draws out or comes to realize what he or she knows and does not know. Hence, teaching is an art—the art of turning the student’s attention to the proper point. There is no fixed procedure— no method—for doing so. The first goal of interpretive discussion leaders, according to Socrates, is to direct the attention of the students and thereby help them identify what they think they do not know and want to find out. Accordingly, leaders question the participants in order to help them form and clarify their questions and identify the deepest point of doubt, their ideas, and their arguments for or against resolution of the point of doubt and other queries. There is no method for such questioning because what is asked depends on what participants say. Thus it is that Socrates speaks of the “art” of turning the soul. Likewise, learning to lead interpretive discussion is, indeed, learning the art of turning the soul. What each person says is unique, so the dialogue that transpires in an interpretive discussion is also unique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDZ8u2JekIs - CREDE principals applied to reinvention of teacher preparation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-HmqwUDfB4 - Preparing Preservice Teachers to Work with English Learners

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSohjlYQI2A - Julian Treasure TED Talk, "Five Ways to Listen Better"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WH93AaXDfo - Malakai Paul sings "Listen"

Infed - "[|What is Conversation"]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbdTVZS-kLY - "Upon the Burning of My House" a typical classroom discussion

Shadowlands
 * 7:00

9:00 - 9:10 - Welcome and Introductions
 * Agenda for the day

9:10 - 9:40 - Introduction to Five Standards > activities that encourage interaction among teacher and peers, the focus of teaching and learning > shifts from individuals' attributes to an emphasis on the ways in which students' attributes play > out in interaction and activity with others" (Dalton & Tharp, 2002, p. 13)
 * Background
 * Theoretical Foundation (sociocultural)
 * Five Standards
 * Matching an example to a standard
 * It's about connections!
 * "When distinguished teaching means every student is often engaged in compelling

9:40 - 10:00 - A classroom built on sociocultural premises requires reorganization
 * What do you think it would look like? Small groups
 * What are you already doing?
 * Not prescriptive standards - "the standards are not invariant templates to be imposed on all situations" (Dalton & Tharp)

10:00 - 10:30 - Instructional Conversation - What is it?

Instructional - goal-directed, assessed & a forum for assessment, assisted

Conversational - inclusive, responsive, participatory
 * IRF - about 70% of classroom talk; teacher talks 60-80% of the time
 * Initiation - teacher asks a question
 * Response - student responds
 * Feedback - teacher evaluates
 * Skit of IRF at lunch
 * Characteristics of a conversation
 * organic in nature
 * volunteer turn-taking
 * Being With
 * Being Open

1. arranges the classroom to accommodate conversation between the teacher and small groups of students on a regular and frequent schedule. 2. ensures that a clear academic goal guides conversation. 3. ensures that student talk occurs at higher rates than teacher talk. 4. guides conversation to include students' views, judgments and rationales, based on text evidence and other substantive support. 5. ensures that all students are included in the conversation. 6. listens carefully to assess levels of student understanding. 7. assists student learning throughout the conversation by questioning, restating, praising, encouraging, etc. 8. guides the students to prepare a product that indicates the instructional conversation's goal was achieved.
 * groups of 3-7; but can also happen with larger groups or individuals

Instructional Conversation:
 * Regular and frequent
 * Academically Focused
 * Student-centered
 * students talk more than the teacher
 * includes and honors students' perspectives
 * Inclusive
 * Teacher listens carefully to assess student understanding
 * Teacher assists student learning by questioning, restating, praising, encouraging
 * Teacher guides the students to prepare a product that indicates the instructional goal was achieved

10:30 - 11:30 - Learning Centers
 * Academic Focus
 * Questioning
 * Eliciting Academic Language and Supported Ideas

Questioning > to mind while reading without regard to type. When the first reading is > complete, however, they read through their questions and put to one side > those that are factual or evaluative. In perusing the questions that are > left—those that are interpretive—they try to discover the question about > the meaning of the text that they most wish to resolve. I call that question > the deepest point of doubt (DPD)." - (P. 6 - Haroutunian-Gordon)
 * "In preparing for discussion, leaders write down questions that come

11:30 - 12:30 - Working Lunch
 * Prepare IC

1:00 - 2:00 - Practice IC's with students

2:00 - 3:00 - Debriefing