{"data":{"ID":728,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1508953976,"CreatorID":4735,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Beyond Boxes, Borders, and Binaries: Thinking with More Complexity","Handle":"beyond_boxes-borders-and_binaries--thinking_with_more_complexity","ShortDescription":"It seems we\u2019re all trapped within our ideological \u201cbubbles,\u201d victims to believing and spreading \u201cfake\u201d and fast news. Let\u2019s start doing something about this lack of nuanced thinking in our classrooms by providing texts that do not reduce ideas down to soundbites. You\u2019ll leave this session thinking about how to help students articulate their ideas with depth and sophistication.","Description":"In both my public speaking and English classes, I\u2019m noticing a pattern in the arguments that students develop and attempt to defend in their writing and presentations: they\u2019re too simplistic, to begin with, and they usually reduce a topic down to a binary of us\/them, right\/wrong, or black\/white. The Common Core standards almost encourage this reductive thinking, boiling down argumentative writing to establishing a claim and addressing \u201cthe\u201d counterclaim, as if issues don\u2019t have multiple sides and many shades of gray.\r\n\t\r\nIn this session, I will share my initial successes and failures in attempting to develop a syllabus that includes texts from a multiplicity of perspectives, as well as the writing assignments and classroom activities I\u2019m developing to uncover and unpack the complicated and complex worldviews contained within them. I\u2019ll show participants examples of the student work that has come out of these readings and assignments, pointing to both areas of growth as well as places of persistently superficial thinking.","Link":["http:\/\/www.nycischool.org\/"],"Audience":["High School","Middle School","Elementary School","All School Levels"],"Practice":"We will adapt two NSRF protocols (Four \u201cA\u201ds Text and Last Word) so that teachers can grapple with and respond to two polarizing texts (excerpts from Ta-Nehisi Coates\u2019s Between the World and Me and J.D. Vance\u2019s Hillbilly Elegy).\r\n\t\r\nWith the Four \u201cA\u201ds Text protocol, teachers will read the Coates text in small groups and then take turns sharing their responses to each of the four following questions:\r\n\r\nWhat Assumptions does the author of the text hold?\r\nWhat do you Agree with in the text?\r\nWhat do you want to Argue with in the text?\r\nWhat parts of the text do you want to Aspire to?\r\n\r\nThen, all groups will come together to share some of their tables\u2019 reactions.\r\n\t\r\nNext, the Last Word protocol will be used after each participant reads the Vance text. When they\u2019re ready, participants at each table will take turns sharing one quote from the text and why the quote made a strong impression on them (in no more than 2 minutes). Then, each of the other participants will get up to 1 minute to respond to the quote and what the presenter said, the purpose of the response being\r\n\r\nTo expand on the presenter\u2019s thinking about the quote and the issues raised for him or her by the quote,\r\nTo provide a different look at the quote,\r\nTo clarify the presenter\u2019s thinking about the quote, and\/or\r\nTo question the presenter\u2019s assumptions about the quote and the issues raised (although at this time there is no response from the presenter).\r\n\r\nFinally, the presenter has one more minute to have the \u201cfinal word.\u201d Now what are they thinking? What is their reaction to what they heard?\r\n\r\nAfter the initial presentation and the two protocols, the group will come together as a whole and share their final thoughts about what role, if any, these protocols could play in their handling of texts from across the political and ideological spectrum.","Presenter":["Thomas Jones"],"PresenterAffiliation":["NYC iSchool (H.S. 376)"],"PresenterEmail":["tjones@nycischool.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":93,"ScheduleLocationID":7,"SubmitterID":4735,"AdditionalComments":"Thank you so much for your consideration! I would prefer to present during one of the earliest sessions on Saturday.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":7}}