Strategies
Socratic Seminars
In Socratic teaching the dialogue is driven by questions, not answers. The method invites participants to go deeper into the topic rather than feeling the sense of closure that comes with providing an answer. Participants must understand objectives, shared terminology and guidelines. There are generally six key rules for the leader to follow in a proper Socratic seminar, but my class needs sometimes dictate that I adjust to accommodate challenges students may have, for example with attendance issues or general agitation from a rough morning. The Socratic questioner should do these six things: keep the discussion focused; keep the discussion intellectually responsible; stimulate the discussion with probing questions; periodically summarize what has and has not been dealt with and/or resolved; draw as many students as possible into the discussion. Often my students come without strong class discussion skills. This takes practice, but the specific guidelines help them to use restraint and to develop ideas they may not otherwise. We’ll look at some of our essential questions and maybe tackle some relevant larger concepts, like how we define crime, punishment or justice.
Simulations
In addition to reading and writing varied texts, we’ll work on organizing ideas for expression and presentation in several other formats. One will be in the form of simulations where we will re-create debates at several possible levels of government. For example, we can simulate a city council meeting where speakers debate whether or not to add additional sales tax to build a new juvenile justice center. At the state level, we can simulate a senate or house debate on possible legislation to divert funds from secure facilities to restorative or therapeutic programs. Following some research, we can simulate a youth court hearing. For simulations to be well done, each participant must prepare in advance to understand clearly her role and responsibilities in the situation, the standard structure and order of the debate or situation, and the intricacies of the issue at hand.
Field Trips
We have small classes with access to county vans, so field trips are always an option. My non-traditional students love to use their hands, be out of the classroom and be surprised by activities that do not involve reading and writing, but these activities are centered around academic skills and standards. We will travel to two sites to compare what juvenile justice centers should and should not be like, according to the best practices we study. In our case, at least for this one year, we can visit both the current and new, almost completed county juvenile justice facility. Accompanying activities for this trip would be to compare and contrast the facilities in writing, by studying plans, and comparing the new site to what research says are best practices today in juvenile facilities. Another field trip is likely to be to the state capitol to visit our own legislators and to watch the session in progress on the Senate and House floors.
Guest Speakers
This unit lends itself to the possibility of guest speakers. As those “in the system” move through the system, they encounter police officers, judges, probation counselors, and even school officials who participate in their experience in some way. Further removed but just as significant to their process are the district attorney, county and city officials and state legislators. We will invite several throughout the unit into our classroom. Students will prepare for visitors by doing some background research and preparing some questions in advance.
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