Mock Trial of Socrates: reflections and Improving Practice
I have largely focused on the individual, written products of students that require reflection on a role-play after a simulation has occurred. Examining these observation notes provided me with another perspective and additional avenues of future inquiry. Overall, I would argue that the simulation was a success, students showed high levels of engagement. The observation notes demonstrate that lively simulation activities, although chaotic, can provide opportunities for students to share ideas and correct each other, ultimately developing a greater understanding of the themes and content.
I was surprised that my students, who have been labeled as distracted or talkative in the past, really committed to their characters and roles. The second round of justices in particular, demonstrated how students who are struggling in traditional classroom work, can take their simulation role-play extremely seriously. They corrected an anachronistic analogy given by the defense and they asked more questions than the requirement.
The level of audience interaction that my Penn Mentor recorded has addressed a concern of mine, “Should I require the same level of role-play acting from all my students, or should I allow a choice considering the high-risk nature of the activity (performing in front of peers)?” I ultimately decided to allow students to pick a representative to speak (as opposed to the whole group) because of time restrictions. But I also did not want to force students if they felt uncomfortable acting. In the future, with a my own classroom, I will attempt to build up students’ confidence so all would feel comfortable acting in a role-play. But in this case, I feel that the active audience participation supports the notion that students can engage in the interactions without being in the spotlight.
My Penn Mentor’s observation notes highlight one clear issue with simulations, student’s lack of preparation for speeches and some students’ tendency to laugh or break character when attempting to adopt roles. This reminds me of a similar issue with their writing, my freshman are still learning the expectations of a high school classroom. For their writing I instituted targeted writing strategies (TWS’s). This allowed me to focus on building specific skills. I think in the future, I may create a targeted skill system for performance-based simulations. So students are aware of the presentation skills that they need to demonstrate and have the time to practice them with their peers.
I was surprised that my students, who have been labeled as distracted or talkative in the past, really committed to their characters and roles. The second round of justices in particular, demonstrated how students who are struggling in traditional classroom work, can take their simulation role-play extremely seriously. They corrected an anachronistic analogy given by the defense and they asked more questions than the requirement.
The level of audience interaction that my Penn Mentor recorded has addressed a concern of mine, “Should I require the same level of role-play acting from all my students, or should I allow a choice considering the high-risk nature of the activity (performing in front of peers)?” I ultimately decided to allow students to pick a representative to speak (as opposed to the whole group) because of time restrictions. But I also did not want to force students if they felt uncomfortable acting. In the future, with a my own classroom, I will attempt to build up students’ confidence so all would feel comfortable acting in a role-play. But in this case, I feel that the active audience participation supports the notion that students can engage in the interactions without being in the spotlight.
My Penn Mentor’s observation notes highlight one clear issue with simulations, student’s lack of preparation for speeches and some students’ tendency to laugh or break character when attempting to adopt roles. This reminds me of a similar issue with their writing, my freshman are still learning the expectations of a high school classroom. For their writing I instituted targeted writing strategies (TWS’s). This allowed me to focus on building specific skills. I think in the future, I may create a targeted skill system for performance-based simulations. So students are aware of the presentation skills that they need to demonstrate and have the time to practice them with their peers.