AIG Booster Shot #6Differentiation for Gifted Learners: Seminars

Facilitator’s Guide

A seminar is “a collaborative, intellectual dialogue facilitated by open-ended questions about a text.”

We know a seminar is going well when students are:

Referring to the text, Asking good questions, Changing their minds, Encouraging one another to speak up, Piggybacking on one another’s ideas, and Laughing.

A good seminar text:

Can come in many forms (for example, a video, an image, a song, a painting, a short story, an essay, a chart, or a diagram).

Raises important issues. Is ambiguous. Can be explored through multiple perspectives. Is connected to big ideas or concepts. Is linked to the curriculum in a meaningful way.

Three Types of Seminar Questions

Opening questions: (usually only 1)

Get the seminar started and quickly engage students with the text Open-ended Round robin so that all students must respond Require no explanation Example: “What word or phrase would you use to describe this text?”

Core questions: (usually several, more than 5)

More specific to text and more closed than opening questions Require direct reference to the text Focus on central ideas of text Require follow-up questions to prompt further thinking and explanation

Closing questions: (usually 2-3)

Application to students’ lives and the real world Address process of the seminar Can extend to a written product Examples: “What does this text ultimately teach us about this issue?” “What

did you learn during this seminar?”

Tips for managing seminars:

Review expectations before each seminar (for example, reference the text, be willing to be uncertain, speak up 4 times)

Sit in a circle so all students can see one another Number pages/lines in text to ease referencing Teach students how to respond to their peers’ comments (“I want to build

on….”) Do not require hand raising Stop in the middle of a seminar to review behaviors and set goals Use “talking tickets”/poker chips to help students’ monitor their

participation Be ready to step in to address disrespect, too little participation, too much

participation, confusion, off-topic comments

Resources for Further Reading and Exploration:

http://www.paideia.org/for-teachers/teacher-resources/ (provides a wide range of seminar plans based on texts spanning subject areas, includes primary source texts)

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/paideia/ https://www.nwabr.org/sites/default/files/SocSem.pdf

General Ideas for Next Steps:

Continue reading about seminars (see resources above). Look for and evaluate examples of seminars (There are many available on

the web!): Are the texts important, engaging, and provocative? Are the questions posed genuinely thought provoking and challenging?

Meet with your team/PLC to reflect on the use of seminars: How and where might seminars fit into your teaching? How can you incorporate seminars to continue challenging your most able learners?

Beginning Steps:

K-2: Select 4 units or topics that you will be teaching in the next few weeks, and identify a seminar text to go along with each unit/topic.

Gr. 3-5: Work with a colleague to identify a seminar text that you can use in the next month and create seminar questions to go along with the text. Use the seminar with your students and get their feedback on it. What do they think about seminars?

Gr. 6-8: Conduct a seminar in one of your classes. Ask a colleague to observe it and provide feedback to you about it. What went well? What can be improved?

Gr. 9-12: Create a seminar evaluation rubric. What does “excellent” seminar participation look like? What about “moderate” or “weak” participation? Work with your students to tweak the rubric. What ideas can they add to it?