Learning to Fly

Joining the 101 English Blogs movement was just the motivational boost that I needed to get blogging. I've put it off and put it off and I'm glad to get this ball rolling! I'm not sure where these blogs will go so I'm excited to see the results myself.

As of right now, I have been teaching English for the past four and a half years. I work with great people, I teach great kids, and I can say that I truly love what I do every single day.

What I love about teaching English is that the subject matter is actually life. We talk about love, hate, birth, death, good, evil, and so much more. The subject matter is constantly changing and this remains constant.

One method that I put to use in my classroom, specifically in my AP Literature and Composition classes, is the Socratic method. I have found Socratic Seminars to be fun and insightful while being extremely successful in helping my students to construct meaning and grapple with texts on a deeper level.

One of the keys to a productive Socratic Seminar discussion is a hands-off, no meddling approach from me. Early on, I found myself hoping that students would take the discussion in a certain direction , so I would push them there. Once I stopped urging, pushing, and manipulating the discussion, they got a lot better. In fact, the very best discussions are the ones that I take no part in at all. I used to serve as the discussion director or group leader and recently, I've given this title to a different student for each discussion. Now, in the beginning, when students are getting used to the format, it was necessary for me to be a bit more vocal, but at this point, I run the risk of just plain getting in the way. Every time I've let my students go, they've soared far past where I hoped they'd go.

We started a discussion about Heart of Darkness by talking about the difference between Marlow and Kurtz and ended by discussing what good is and what evil is and how the two are ever changing and not absolute. Just the other day, we were discussing Christina Rossetti's "The Goblin Market" and we ended up talking about whether one's innocence can ever be re-gained. These topics were no where to be found in the lesson plan, they just happened spontaneously. I guess the Socratic method has taught me that letting go can be very good.