Comments on: Golden Gate Suicides

By: Iâ€™m not sayinâ€™. « iThinkEducation.net!

Iâ€™m not sayinâ€™. « iThinkEducation.net! — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:30:58 +0000

[…] Meyer seems to have come across a recent theme in his lessons: he’s not giving them the answers. I think that’s […]

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:28:00 +0000

In another thread, you ream me for being too presumptuous while here you chide me for being too demure. Can’t please some people.

By: Dina

Dina — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:09:13 +0000

whoops, sorry, double post…er.. see if you can find the omitted preposition!

By: Dina

Dina — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:07:47 +0000

“…but since this goes nowhere near core curriculum I don’t worry about whether I have scaffolded one of these goofy conceptual digressions enough and, lately, I have no trouble walking away from an unanswered question.”

Dost thou protest too much? Seems to me that if you had “no trouble walking away,” you wouldn’t be devoting precious blog space to why/how/if it works.

I’m not trying to be a snot. I just don’t want you to get too dismissive about this. It’s important. But I think you know that.

By: Dina

Dina — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:07:30 +0000

Dost thou protest too much? Seems to me that if you had “no trouble walking away,” you wouldn’t be devoting precious blog space why/how/if it works.

I’m not trying to be a snot. I just don’t want you to get too dismissive about this. It’s important. But I think you know that.

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:50:18 +0000

I may update this now and again, today to observe that, when I toss one of these up on the whiteboard, I make sure I am staring intently at the board, rather than staring smugly at my class, waiting for them to discover the interesting thing I have brought them. I’m sure they know this is just an act but it helps relieve some pressure, I think, if they think I am just as befuddled as they are.

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:45:43 +0000

Never seen it. Never heard of it. Would love to check it out. Any samples anywhere?

By: David

David — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:25:17 +0000

Dan
It sounds like you have a pretty authentic version of a Socratic Seminar take place every time you put one of these digressions in the hands of your students. Are you familiar with Touchstones? I have had some pretty satisfying discussions take place after having students work with some of these readings.
http://www.touchstones.org/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=1878461354

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 03:51:30 +0000

At this point I’d like to believe my students trust me enough to curate not-boring media in our class that when I toss something up on the board I can walk away and they’ll assume there’s subtextual meaning or something important to unpack without me prodding them, even if it isn’t immediately obvious.

I’ll ask questions if nothing’s happening, questions that are brief, questions which may seem initially unanswerable. “Where is this?” “Which side is closer to us?” and then “What is this a graph of?”

At that point students start tossing out responses and I’ll do little else at that point except literalize their thesis. (eg. a student tells me it could be the number of car crashes at a given point on the bridge and I’ll say, “Okay, so you’re saying there were two crashes here. Four crashes there. Seventeen crashes there. Sound good to everyone?”) and wait for another student to point out the incongruity for me.

I aim to curate in these sessions. I try to refine or recast student thought while projecting little of my own. I ask questions but since this goes nowhere near core curriculum I don’t worry about whether I have scaffolded one of these goofy conceptual digressions enough and, lately, I have no trouble walking away from an unanswered question.

By: Touzel

Touzel — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:39:49 +0000

Dan, I’m curious to know exactly how you set something like this up. Hopefully, we’ll one day have video of how you do this in your classroom, but until that day…

When you say that you “tossed it onto my students without introduction”, does that mean you literally put up the graphic and walk away? Are there any questions they might ask that you will answer? What norms do you have for your students during these discussions?

Until you get the video up, can you describe what happens and what doesn’t happen? In the past, I’ve been accused of providing my students with too little scaffolding, so I’d just like to know how you do it so that I can learn from you.