Guest Blog: Student Voice = Essential Questions + Memorable Conversations

Dan Fouts has taught AP government, philosophy and US history in the Chicagoland area and is a member of the Social Studies Department at Maine West High School, an Illinois Democracy School. Dan has served as a member of the committee on pre-collegiate instruction in philosophy through the American Philosophical Association from 2012-2016. Additionally, he has presented at several National Council for the Social Studies conferences and has instructed online courses since 2004 through Aurora, Quincy, and Adams State University. To fuel his passion for teaching teachers how to create and use essential questions in their classrooms, Dan manages a blog with Teach Different and a personal blog SocratesQuestions, both of which celebrate the power of inquiry-based classrooms.

Having a good classroom conversation is hard these days.

Consider what we’re up against.

Outside school, amidst the polarization of political views and clutter of social media, our students have few places to go to see what good conversations look like, not to mention the fact that they are already distracted by technology. And then in the classroom, we compound the problem inadvertently by racing through our curriculum and never setting aside enough time to digest big ideas.

The greatest benefit to conversations is the long term — they give our students the feeling that their voices matter and that they have something meaningful to add to the community. When student voice is validated through classroom conversations, a road is paved for future participation in the political process. Political efficacy grows and our national discourse improves. There’s a ton at stake here.

Teach Different, a teacher professional development organization in Chicago, has developed a process that teachers can employ to do two things:

1. Set up great conversations
2. Formulate provocative essential questions

The process comes in three steps and draws its inspiration from philosophy, borrowing most from the wisdom of the greatest questioner and conversation artist of them all, Socrates. He knew way before all of us that asking profound questions and engaging people in dialogue was the best way to establish and nurture student voice.

Here’s a quick 2-minute cartoon summarizing the process, beginning with a provocative quote from the Chinese philosopher Confucius: “If you want to embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”

 

 In steps one and two teachers and students think deeply about a provocative quotation and consider claims and counterclaims surrounding it. The essential question, designed in step three, then becomes the hitching post for a memorable conversation connected to the curriculum. The key to the essential question is accessibility — it must coax students to draw out their own lived experiences, which in turn invests them emotionally in the ensuing conversation. In this way, the essential question promotes student voice by tending to the social-emotional needs of all learners. ( Beyond accessibility, there are other important criteria of essential questions that are outlined nicely in Mary Ellen Daneels' post a few weeks ago).

Good conversations are difficult to have, but not impossible. Like anything else, their success is dependent on careful planning and adherence to a consistent routine over time.

What strategies and routines have you found successful in creating better conversations and promoting student voice? Please comment below and share your ideas!

Additional Conversation Resources

1. More examples of the 3-step process taken from Teach Different blog
• Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. Robert Ingersoll 1833-1899: Politician and Orator
• There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. Beverly Sills: American Operatic Singer
• Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it. Malcolm X
2. A sign-up form to request a Teach Different teacher training video which explores the 3-step process more in depth. In a follow up email, there is information on an online course through Adams State University for teachers who want to customize the process to their own curriculum.
3. A great resource from Facing History and Ourselves which shows how to create a respectful classroom community before having conversations. It’s called Classroom Contracting.
4. A strategy from Edutopia called “Talk Moves”, which promotes academic thinking and social connectedness.