Lesson 2 - Preambles Paideia Seminar PDF

Preambles Paideia Seminar Suggested Time: 150 minutes (two 75-minute sessions) Lesson Introduction: In this lesson, students will read the Preambles to the United States Constitution and Delaware Constitution and discuss their ideas using the Paideia seminar approach. Paideia seminars are intellec...

Preambles Paideia Seminar Suggested Time: 150 minutes (two 75-minute sessions) Lesson Introduction: In this lesson, students will read the Preambles to the United States Constitution and Delaware Constitution and discuss their ideas using the Paideia seminar approach. Paideia seminars are intellectual dialogues about text facilitated with open-ended questions and have the goal of participants developing a deeper understanding of the textual ideas and values, others, and themselves. This approach to instruction was developed by the National Paideia Center, based originally on the book The Paideia Proposal by Mortimer Adler. It’s useful as a tool to build content knowledge while giving students the opportunity to improve their literacy skills, particularly around civil discourse, while building a positive classroom culture. This lesson was adapted in part from questions and ideas from the National Paideia Center’s Preamble of the United States Lesson plan written by Dr. Terry Roberts. For more information about Paideia seminars and additional sample plans, visit the National Paideia Center website. Delaware Social Studies Standard: Civics Standard 1a [Government]: Students will understand why governments have the authority to make, enforce, and interpret laws and regulations, such as levying taxes, conducting foreign policy, and providing for national defense. Essential Questions: Why do governments have authority? How do the preambles to the U.S. and Delaware Constitutions bridge the purposes and powers of governments? Enduring Understanding: Students will understand that the Preambles to the U.S. and Delaware Constitutions describe purposes of government that can only be fulfilled if governments are given authority to use the powers the constitutions provide. Warm-up: 1. Students will Think-Pair-Share to respond to the following questions: a. What powers do teachers have within the classroom? b. How do teachers carry out these powers? c. Why do teachers have the authority to carry out these powers? 2. Students will discuss whole-class with the teacher, helping students to draw comparisons between the authority and power of teachers within a classroom and the authority and power of our governments at the national and state levels. Tell students they will be learning about Constitutions created for the United States and Delaware in order to get a better idea of the ideas that inform how our governments are organized. Activity 1: Pre-seminar content 1. Students will read Resource 1 - Background on US & DE Constitutions in order to learn relevant background information about the preambles to both constitutions. Students will also work to define the following words with a partner: domestic, tranquility, welfare, posterity, ordain, divine, dictates, acquire, obtain, inherent, derive. 2. The class will talk through any questions students have about the background and vocabulary words students have defined. 3. Then, students will read Resource 2 - Preambles to US & DE Constitutions. They will number the U.S. Constitution preamble from lines 1-5 and the DE Constitution preamble from lines 6-14 in order to make it easier to reference specific portions during the discussion. Activity 2: Pre-seminar process 1. Teacher will introduce the concept of a Paideia Seminar to the class using Resource 3 - Paideia Seminar Teacher Introduction. In addition to the description below, teachers should consider the following to differentiate for students. Check out Resource 4 - Accountable Talk Guidelines for specific sentence stems and guidance. a. Students can be provided with a bank of goals to choose from for both their individual goals and the class goals. English Learners should have a targeted language goal or objective that ties into the Paideia Seminar. The teacher should work closely with an ESL teacher to provide a specific language goal for English Learners. b. For students who are typically shy to respond, the teacher can solicit their responses early on in the discussion, or implement a layer of norms for the discussion, such as “No one may speak twice until everyone has spoken once.” Additionally, students can be provided with one silent minute before discussion on each question begins so that shy students or slower processors have time to collect their thoughts. c. Students can be provided with discussion sentence starters. 2. Be sure to have students set individual goals and to have the class to set a goal as well. Goal setting is an important part of Paideia seminar to ensure that students are making improvements in their discourse approach over time. Activity 3: Paideia seminar 1. Facilitation Notes and Reflections: a. To prepare for the Paideia Seminar, desks or tables should be arranged in a circle or square so that all students can see each other. If the class is large, desks can be arranged in two circles. In this set-up, the inner circle will be the “speaking circle” while the outer circle will be the “listening circle.” With either arrangement, students will have a partner to evaluate during the seminar. They will keep track of each other’s progress. b. During the discussion, the teacher should track students’ responses. For each time a student speaks, mark a tally next to that student’s name. Notations should also be used to track the type of response: if students cite the text specifically in their response (T) or asked a question (?). If students explicitly agree (A) or disagree (D), write those letters along the line connecting one student's comment to the next. Check out Resource 5 - Paideia class map example for an  example of how a Paideia map could look and a template teachers can adapt. Also, teachers can read Resource 6 - Paideia Seminar FAQs for answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Paideia seminars. If you are facilitating this seminar for an online course, check our Resource 7 - Virtual Paideia Seminar Guidance. c. During the discussion, keep track of the time, and switch the inner and outer circles halfway through, if necessary. The new inner circle students should answer the same round-robin question. With the exception of the round-robin question, students are free to respond to any question they desire. There may not be sufficient time to ask all questions, so allow students to dig into questions they find intriguing and curate the questions that seem to stimulate the most conversations. d. The questions provided below are meant as examples but teachers should not expect to be able to ask all questions. As the paideia facilitator, the teacher should closely monitor the flow of the discussion and ask questions that will advance the conversation while minimizing interruptions. 2. Opening Questions: These questions are designed to get participants to identify the main ideas and/or values in the text. It is common to start with a Round-Robin-style question – one which all students answer with just a few words each – in order to help students gain a little confidence with a close-ended question before opening it up to broader questions that are more subjective. When asking the following questions, the teacher should pose the question but make clear that students should engage in conversation in response with each other, not direct their answer back to the teacher. a. Round Robin: What is the single most important word in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution? b. Once all students have responded: What makes the word you chose significant? 3. Core Questions: These questions are designed to have participants closely analyze the details of the text. Teachers will likely not be able to ask all the questions below, but they should monitor the discussion carefully and choose the questions that best push along the discussion in a productive manner. a. According to these preambles, what are the most important purposes of government in the United States? b. How does the purpose of government as laid out by the US Constitution preamble differ from the purpose as described by the DE Constitution preamble? c. In line 2, what do you think the authors mean by “domestic Tranquility”? Why is it important? d. In line 3, what does the U.S. Constitution preamble mean when it says “promote the general welfare?” e. In line 4, what did the founders envision being the “blessings of liberty?” f. What insights do these preambles provide to us about why governments have authority? g. Why do you think the writers of DE’s preamble included a reference to “alter[ing] their Constitution” (Line 14) 4. Closing Questions: These questions are designed so that participants personally evaluate the ideas and values. a. In line 1, the U.S. Constitution preamble uses the words “We the People.” In line 6, the DE Constitution preamble uses the words “all people.” Considering that some groups (i.e., everyone except property-owning white men over age 21) were excluded from “We the people”  and “all people” when these preambles were written, how should we think about the authority of the governments created by these constitutions? b. If we were to revise one of these preambles for current times, what purpose would you choose to add to those that are already given? Why? Activity 4: Post-seminar process 1. The class will debrief the Paideia seminar process to reflect on its effectiveness. Check the class goal and see if students were able to meet the goal. Discuss why or why not, and what they can do next time during a Paideia seminar to improve. Students will also check their individual goals and ask a few students to volunteer to share whether or not they met their goal. The teacher might also want to either walk around to show students the conversation map or pass around the map so that students can see it. They are usually fascinated to see this conversation map. Activity 5: Post-seminar content 1. Take a few minutes to debrief any content-specific questions that came up during the discussion. Clarify any misunderstandings or inaccuracies and give students a few minutes to organize their notes and/or ask questions. Check for Understanding 1. Students will write a paragraph addressing the question: According to the US and DE Constitution preambles, why do the governments created by these constitutions have authority?  Resource 1 - Background on U.S. and Delaware Constitutions U.S. Constitution Preamble Including a preamble to the Constitution of the United States was not a new idea. The Preamble, which is the first part of the Constitution, was modeled on the preambles of other legal documents, including several British laws, state constitutions, and the Declaration of Independence. The concept of a preamble was well-known to the Constitution's framers, but there was little debate at the Philadelphia Convention about whether the Constitution required a preamble. The initial draft of the Constitution's Preamble was brief and did not specify the Constitution's objectives, but the Preamble underwent significant changes after the draft Constitution was referred to the Committee of Style. The Committee replaced the opening phrase of the Constitution with the now-familiar introduction, "We, the People of the United States," and listed six broad goals for the Constitution. While the Preamble did not provoke any further discussion in the Philadelphia Convention, the first words of the Constitution were prominently featured in the ratifying debates that followed. The Preamble was used by supporters of the Constitution to explain why the document was necessary and to argue that the power of government ultimately comes from the people. Opponents of the Constitution, however, criticized the opening lines and argued that it would create a consolidated national government. Ultimately, the Preamble served to introduce the goals of the Constitution and the purposes of our national government. It remains an important part of the document to this day. Source: Adapted from Constitution Annotated D.E. Constitution Preamble After the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776, the former colonial government in Delaware wanted to create a new government for the state. They held a constitutional convention in New Castle, DE starting in August 1776. This convention had 10 elected delegates from each of the three counties in Delaware: New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. Since this constitution was created 17 years before the U.S. Constitution, the delegates were not influenced by it. They talked about many of the ideas that eventually ended up in the DE preamble, but the original DE Constitution did not have one. In 1792, Delaware met again to update their constitution and they added the preamble, which has remained unchanged through further revisions to the constitution in 1831, 1897, through today. The religious language that appears at the beginning of the DE preamble comes from the first constitutional convention in 1776. At that convention, all the delegates had to declare that they "profess Faith in God the Father, and In Jesus Christ his only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, on God blessed for evermore." Some of the language in the preamble also seems to come from a resolution that was passed on Sept. 11th, 1776. Source: Adapted from Proceedings of the Convention of the Delaware State held at New-Castle (1776) and The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution Digital Edition, ed. John P. Kaminski, Gaspare J. Saladino, Richard Leffler, Charles H. Schoenleber and Margaret A. Hogan. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009.  Resource 2 - Preambles to the US and DE Constitutions Preamble to the United States Constitution (1787) "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Preamble to the Delaware State Constitution (1897) “Through Divine goodness, all people have by nature the rights of worshiping and serving their Creator according to the dictates of their consciences, of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring and protecting reputation and property, and in general of obtaining objects suitable to their condition, without injury by one to another; and as these rights are essential to their welfare, for due exercise thereof, power is inherent in them; and therefore all just authority in the institutions of political society is derived from the people, and established with their consent, to advance their happiness; and they may for this end, as circumstances require, from time to time, alter their Constitution of government.”  Resource 3 - Paideia Seminar Introduction Script Directions: Teachers read this script to begin a paideia seminar, though it often works best if the ideas are captured in your own words. “A Paideia Seminar is a collaborative, intellectual dialogue about a DEFINITION text, facilitated with open-ended questions.” “The objective of this seminar is to arrive at a fuller understanding of OBJECTIVE textual ideas and values, of ourselves, and of others.” I will be asking challenging, open-ended questions, taking notes on talking points and monitoring the flow of ideas. I will help move the TEACHER’S ROLE discussion along in a productive manner by asking follow-up questions based on my notes.” “You should focus your attention on whomever is speaking, wait your turn to make comments, and agree or disagree with others in a STUDENT’S ROLE respectful manner. Whenever possible, please refer to others by name and make specific reference to the text to support your ideas.” “To start off, let’s think about how we typically interact as a class during a discussion. We need to set a class goal which attempts to incorporate key elements of the Paideia seminar or addresses identified problem areas. For example, we could set a class goal to CLASS GOAL make eye contact with whomever is speaking or to be sure to take turns in speaking.” (Ask for suggestions for a class goal and have one student write the goal on the board so students can easily refer to it during the discussion). “Now that we have a class goal, I want you to think about an individual goal. Before you decide, think about your particular strengths and weaknesses in class discussion. If you know you tend INDIVIDUAL GOAL to dominate the conversation, consider working on your active listening and questioning skills. If you know you tend to sit silently, consider a goal of speaking once or twice. Please take a minute now to think about and write down a goal on the back of your name tent.” “We are ready to begin our Paideia seminar on (topic). To get us started, I will ask you all to think about and write down your response to the first question. Then, we will go around the circle to ROUND-ROBIN allow everyone to share their answers. Once the round-robin is complete, I will ask an open-ended question and allow you to respond directly to each other. Please remember to look at the person who is speaking, not me and be sure to take notes.  Resource 4 - Accountable Talk Guidelines Directions: Use these stems to start your constructive feedback for your discussion. Accountable Language Stems o “I agree with _____ because _____.” o “I like what _____ said because _____.” o “I agree with _____; but on the other hand, _____.” Disagreement o “I disagree with _____ because _____.” o “I’m not sure I agree with what _____ said because _____.” o “I can see that _____; however, I disagree with (or can’t see) _____.” Clarifications o “Could you please repeat that for me?” o Paraphrase what you heard and ask, “Could you explain a bit more, please?” o “I’m not sure I understood you when you said _____. Could you say more about that?” o “What’s your evidence?” o “How does that support our work/mission at _____?” Confirmation Confusion o “I think _____.” o “I don’t understand _____.” o “I believe _____.” o “I am confused about _____.” Extension o “I was thinking about what _____ said, and I was wondering what if _____.” o “This makes me think _____.” o “I want to know more about _____.” o “Now I am wondering _____.” o “Can you tell me more about _____?” Review o “I want to go back to what _____ said.” Features of Accountable Talk Accountability to the Learning Accountability to Accurate Knowledge Accountability to Rigorous Thinking Community 6. Being as specific and accurate as 10. Building arguments 1. Careful listening to each possible 11. Linking claims and evidence in other 7. Resisting the urge to say just logical ways 2. Using and building on “anything that comes to mind.” 12. Working to make statements each other’s ideas 8. Getting the facts straight clear 3. Paraphrasing and seeking 9. Challenging questions that demand 13. Checking the quality of claims clarification evidence for claims and arguments 4. Respectful disagreement 5. Using sentence stems Resource 5 - Paideia Class Map Example  Resource 6 - Paideia Seminar Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) What are the benefits of Paideia seminar? Paideia seminars can be used to help students better understand and retain complex ideas from texts through the discussion process with their peers. Ongoing participation in the pre-seminar close reading of texts and post-seminar writing processes serve to strengthen students’ overall literacy skills in addition to developing their speaking and listening skills. Additionally, the structure of Paideia seminars contributes to a positive class environment by nurturing civil discourse and fostering cordial student relationships. What size classes are ideal for facilitating Paideia seminars? Paideia seminars can be successfully facilitated in groups as large as 35, though the ideal number of students is probably 15-20. For larger groups, consider whether you have a long enough block of time to allow all students to participate. It may be possible to have a larger Paideia seminar discussion when the class is 75 minutes, but it is less likely to be effective in a 50-minute class considering pre- and post-seminar requirements. For larger classes, consider using the fishbowl (or inside circle/outside circle) variation, but be sure to consider how students in the outside circle can participate while they are unable to offer comments directly. How should I select an appropriate text for a Paideia seminar? The best texts for Paideia seminars contain numerous ideas and values, connect clearly to the curriculum and students’ lives, require support to fully comprehend, and are open to a wide variety of interpretations. Typically, texts should not be overly lengthy and should be formatted with larger than usual text and consideration for students annotating. In social studies, it’s often useful to use paired texts that provide different perspectives on the same topic (e.g., Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Exposition Address with excerpts of W.E.B. DuBois’ Souls of Black Folk). You can also consider engaging in seminars with varied types of texts like maps, photographs, charts, and even 3D artifacts (e.g., like a Mobius strip). Can Paideia seminar work with students who struggle to read complex texts? Paideia seminars are ideal for lower-level readers because students have the opportunity to engage with the text multiple times. Students who struggle more with reading often relish the opportunity to talk through the ideas of the text which is closely related to their ability to think. In fact, many struggling readers often offer some of the best insights when talking through a difficult text because they know what it is like to struggle, an experience stronger readers may be less familiar with. Paideia seminars are designed to push students' limits both with reading and critical thinking. I’ve never run a seminar before. Where should I begin? This training is a good place to start! Check out the National Paideia Center website, www.paideia.org which has a plethora of resources, from lesson plans to videos to explanations for how to plan your own seminar. How can I adapt Paideia seminar to be most effective for English Learners? English Learners (ELs) can participate and benefit from Paideia seminars even if they are struggling with reading, writing, and/or speaking the English language. During the pre-seminar Close Reading, ELs benefit from a shared reading by the teacher and textual analysis during rereads with additional teacher support. Consider providing a few questions to ELs in advance so they can prepare their responses ahead of time. Once the seminar begins, start with a Round-Robin question so every student can share an answer. If you find students reluctant to share midway through the seminar, ask your next question with the preamble “For the next question, the first three responses need to come from students who haven’t yet had a chance to share.” You can also consider a Pair-Share during the seminar to give ELs a chance to try out their response with a smaller audience which may make them feel more comfortable sharing whole-group. Finally, the more familiar students get with the process, the more likely they will be to participate. This holds true for ELs as well, so keep trying! How should I grade my students on Paideia seminars? Since the structure of Paideia seminar is designed to foster authentic student engagement, teachers are discouraged from scoring students on their actual participation in the discussion itself (e.g., by tracking number of comments). Grading the discussion can lead to students speaking just to get points rather than sharing their authentic thoughts. Instead, try grading the pre-seminar work, students’ written reflections at the end of the seminar, and longer writing tasks they complete afterwards. How does Paideia seminar work for students who are frequently absent? While frequent student absences present challenges with any strategy, Paideia seminars can give students additional exposure to context and texts they may have missed. When used as part of a sequence beginning with building background content knowledge, closely reading the text, engaging in the seminar, and engaging in a culminating writing activity, students will have multiple opportunities to engage with the content and ideas of the text. The cooperative nature of a Paideia seminar makes it easier for students to help each other out, especially in the pre- and post-seminar phases. Can Paideia seminar work in a classroom where student behavior is an issue? Yes! While Paideia seminar supports literacy and civic communication, research shows the most powerful effects in helping to foster a positive classroom culture. The seminar structure (e.g., using names, empowering student voices, engaging with a highly relevant text, making sense of a challenging text) promote positive student behaviors and the goal-setting features provide a mechanism for making improvements. Sometimes classroom management issues arise because students are bored, or they are acting out to hide the fact that they do not know how to do something. The best part about Paideia seminar is that it is difficult for everyone alike, even adults. Set up your class for success by setting clear classroom expectations, establishing routines and procedures, and trying Paideia seminars at least a few times. What research supports the effectiveness of Paideia seminars? Here are a selection of sources supporting Paideia seminar as a way to build literacy skills, critical thinking, build positive connections between students, and develop knowledge. Awada, G. M., & Ghaith, G. M. (2017). Effect of the paideia seminar on the comprehension of poetry and reading anxiety. Reading Psychology, 39(1), 69–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2017.1382406 Ball, W. H., & Brewer, P. (2000). Socratic seminars in the block. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education. Keegan, N. (2013). Socratic seminar and creating prior knowledge. Library Media Connection, 32(3), 50–51. Roberts, T., & Billings, L. (2009). Thinking is literacy, literacy is thinking. Educational Leadership, 65(5), 32–36.  Resource 7 - Virtual Paideia Seminar Guidance Introduction: A Paideia seminar is a collaborative, intellectual dialogue about a text facilitated with open-ended questions. The goal of a Paideia seminar is to arrive at a deeper understanding of textual ideas and values, ourselves, and others. Paideia seminars share some of the characteristics of Socratic dialogue as a thoughtful discussion, guided by questions and focused on ideas and values. However, the Paideia seminar differs in some respects from the classical Socratic method. Paideia educators have refined classical Socratic dialogue in order to engage students and to build intellectual skills that students need to thrive in today’s society by focusing on text, personal questions, and teaching through self-guidance and listening. Paideia seminars during online instruction: In consultation with the National Paideia Center, the following guidance was developed for how Paideia seminars can be used during online instruction. In general, you will follow the same process for Paideia seminars that you used during in-person instruction, with some adjustments as detailed below. Pre-seminar Content and Process: Preparing before the discussion It’s often the Close Reading and post-seminar writing afterwards that get left out but speaking/listening are much more effective when students have closely read text in advance and engage in writing afterwards. If you have any in-person time, we suggest doing the close reading face to face, and the discussion online, because the reading/writing is so important to the process. Consider doing a launch activity before students close read the text to help them develop interest in the textual ideas/values (e.g., community, fairness, friendship, responsibility, etc.) several days ahead of time. Next, students should do an inspectional read (i.e., first read of a Close Read), introduce students to the text to make them comfortable, really important to not skip this step when teaching online, give explicit instruction on key vocabulary necessary to understanding the key ideas and values contained within the text. Then, analytical read (e.g., second read of a Close Read), students break a text down into parts and then reassemble the text so they can understand it better, students need to have access to this annotated text prior to the seminar, if they have access to a printer, you want them to print it and annotate it. If you are in a hybrid situation, print and give the text to students during in-person days. If you’re able to print the text, that’s the best. If not, give kids directions on split-screens so they can see the video conference and the text at the same time, or have them use their phone to pull up the text (with the chat on computer), or vice versa. Consider providing a digital annotation of the text. Having the text available during the discussion is very important. Setting of group and individual goals: Make sure to still do this if virtual, keep in mind students have different behavior online, you should coach them on setting goals that are specific for the online discussion space. Be hyper conscious of preparing every student to be able to participate, students/people join conversations when they have something to say and when they are confident in the text. Pre-seminar work may be the most important step in ensuring an effective virtual paideia seminar. Facilitating Quality Online Dialogue Limiting the number of participants is especially important in a virtual setting, ideally, you want to limit to as many kids as can fit on a screen with their image at the same time. Ensure that everyone’s names appear equitably with their picture on the meeting, so if you’re using first names, be consistent about that, it’s the virtual equivalent of name tents during a seminar. Ask all participants to unmute themselves, except for when there is distracting background noise. This allows for more spontaneous comments and minimizes unmuting delays to improve conversational flow. Ask students to have annotated text in hand, ideal seminar involves students with access to the text, or maybe they can have the text available on their phone if they are video chatting via another device, it’s much harder to toggle back and forth between virtual version of the text during the seminar so they can refer to it, but they could also use a split screen feature. Mapping the virtual seminar: draw the map of screens via the Zoom/Teams outline, no connecting lines, but tally marks and symbols for questions, text references still work, in some ways, virtual alignment makes it easier to see the faces of other participants while one student talks because everyone is shown in a small space, may actually find more participation by students, use the map to study previous virtual seminars to set class goals for the next one.  Assign a student to monitor the chat feature, it helps if someone other than the teacher has an eagle eye on the chat, can tease out statements or questions, bring up questions, for students responding to questions in the chat, if they are introverted, maybe writing comments/questions in a chat is better than not engagement, still want to move them toward speaking out loud, if possible, over time. May be necessary to call on the participants, even with a Round Robin, as the participants don’t see people in the same order as everyone else, so the teacher probably needs to call on each student as you see them on your screen, this gives you time to set up the map. Focus on the art of asking follow-up questions based on participant responses, keeping good notes on the seminar map will help you to do this well. Ask closing questions to encourage universal participation (e.g., via Round Robin, or cold-calling students who have been less active), in some ways, it’s a little easier to “hide” during a virtual seminar because there is more distance, use the closing question as a bridge to the writing assignment. There will be challenges unique to the virtual environment that will emerge, but take good notes, talk to someone else about what to do in those situations. Post-Seminar Reflection and Writing Coach students through the post-seminar production process to turn insights from the virtual discussion into writing. Post-seminar, circle back to self-assess the class goal and invite individual students to share how they did with their individual goals. Students sometimes do better (or worse) in a virtual seminar compared to in-person. Transition to writing, important that students shift, as quickly as possible, to writing down the ideas that came up and the language that supports those ideas, makes it more likely they will be able to transfer ideas to their formal writing task. Right after the seminar ends, ask students to brainstorm what they heard, said, or thought during the seminar, “great writers steal language wherever they can find it.” Then, address the writing task they will do, this builds on the literacy skills starting with the close reading and speaking/listening, discussion and writing in tandem is particularly helpful for supporting reluctant writers, it equips them with the ideas and language to write about. Building on the brainstorm, begin to structure/outline the writing, organize the ideas from the brainstorm, add new ideas, create the structure for the writing. Then, writing a first draft, often, we don’t create the time to do multiple drafts, but maybe 3-4 times a year we should, it’s important to take the time to truly revise, sharpen ideas, and language. It’s easier to create a new draft if you’re using a digital version. Can use a virtual writing group of students (they share their drafts with each other), including the stage where students read their papers aloud to each other, responding in real time with suggestions, very valuable because in hearing our own writing read aloud, we realize where phrasing is awkward and can be improved. Consider how student writing will be “published,” elementary teachers tend to do this more frequently, but often there’s not an authentic “audience” for that posted writing, for elementary, students both illustrated and wrote a reply, at each stage of the seminar cycle, students should hone their thinking about the text, extended exercise in critical thinking.