Silence

I was so excited to try the "Save the Last Word" discussion in Film & Literature today! I was sure it would result in deeper, more personal conversations than our slated whole class discussion. They had read two chapters in the memoir we're just starting about Paul Rusesabagina (of Hotel Rwanda fame), and I showed them video from Jane Elliott's blue eye/brown eye experiment with third graders while they commented on the class back channel on TodaysMeet.com.

Instead of an article, students were responding to the video above, doing their "note taking" on the back channel. I also switched out Agree, Disagree, and Aspire to for more textual focus:

• connections to the memoir
• connections to their own lives (including friends/family)
• connections to other texts

I split the class into groups of four and five, though in retrospect it should have been groups of three, as there was still room for students to tune out in the groups of five, and it would have been useful for everyone to have to take a turn with this group.

I also should have done more scaffolding of what the silent reflection time should look like, and I wonder if silent reflection can (or should?) include writing to keep them focused on the subject at hand. I do know now that I need to specify that silent reflection does not involve touching each other or playing with whatever is in front of them. I felt they were distracting themselves instead of spending the silence to reflect.