Socratic Seminar and/or Role-play/Simulation Blog

Role-Play Model


Example 1
 

Students with language difficulties struggle to make inferences and draw conclusions when faced
with text. I would teach them that these are things they do everyday while listening in on someones conversation while they are talking on their cell phone. 
(Adapted from http://www.puttingwordsinyourmouth.com/)
 

This model would be a fun way for teaching students how to make inferences and draw conclusion while using role-play.

Define Objectives:  I would use the role-play to teach students how to make inferences and draw conclusion by having them model real-life situations.

Choose Context and Roles: I would use scenarios that give situations where one student would role-play a conversation someone might have on the their cell phone and the students watching the role-play would have to answer questions about the role play.

Example:
Hi,
yes, ma'am........OK, I'm ready. I need 2 large cheese and a medium pepperoni. No, thank you; that will be all. Who did the person call? How do you know?

Introduce the Exercise to the Students: I would explain what the students would be doing and how this role-play exercise will help them learn how to make inferences and draw conclusions. I would do an example with the class with me using my cell phone and ask students the questions after the conversation.

Student Preparation:  I would pass out the scenarios and have students read through their scenario before doing it in front of the class. We would talk about how they might use expression and pauses as if they were in a real conversation with someone on the other end.

The Role Play:  Students would take turns role-playing their scenarios and having the class answer the questions at the end of their role-play.

Concluding Discussion:  There would be a class discussion on how the students knew who the scenario was talking about even though they couldn't hear the whole conversation.

Extensions:  Students could make up their own scenarios. Students could role-play scenarios found in text.

Technology:  Students could be recorded while they are doing their role-play or practice using Photo Booth before doing the real scenario, then listen to themselves and see how they sound. Do they need to add more expression?

RL.2.1. Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
RL.2.6. Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.






 
Socratic Seminar Model 

Example 2 (Idea from: https://vimeo.com/105397457)

The video above was excellent and showed a perfect example of how to use the Socratic Seminar Model in second grade. The teacher sets up the situation by having students read a story several times during the week (Close Reading) and ask and answer questions about the story elements and do comprehension activities.


Introduce the Socratic Seminar Model:  Since students are doing this with a text well known, the teacher sets expectations by having the students sit in a circle and explains that students will answer questions about the story they have read. Example:  How does the author use descriptive words to make the story interesting?

Facilitate the Socratic Seminar Model:  Teacher starts by asking a question and calling on a student to start the conversation. Students respond by using a sentence frame. (Example:  I agree because...) The teacher continues to ask questions and call on a student to start the conversation.

Review and Summarize the Dialogue:  Teacher comments on what students say and clarifies.  She uses a variety of question types.


Evaluate the Dialogue:  In this video, the teacher does the evaluation by telling students they did a good job, but I would also add that having the students evaluate themselves and their performance and talk about ways to improve next time would be valuable.

2.RL.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
2.RL.5 Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and text with peers and adults in small and larger groups.