ECET - Lesson Idea Florida - Sean Paris - Socratic Seminar: Should 16 year-olds Drive?
Program Transcript

Sean Paris (Interview):
As far as this lesson goes, in Common Core standards, uh, I think that one of the strongest aspects of this particular lesson addresses citing textual evidence. Today's topic is teen driving. It is part of a larger picture, but they'll have to decide on their own whether or not we should increase the legal age for teen driving.

Paris:
The first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna start with a little bit of discussion about, kind of, what you think is age appropriate, when you become responsible as a student.

Student 1:
Well I think you can become responsible at any age, because, for example, if you have your mind set on being responsible, you will be responsible.

Paris:
So, you think it's-- You're saying you think it's less of an age and it's more of a mindset.

Student 1:
Yes.

Paris:
I'm glad you brought that up, 'cause you will be reading something about that in your text in a little bit, so these are all things that I want you to think about.

Paris (Interview):
The next step, I present them with the text. They're required to go through the text and do what we call text marking.

Paris:
Now, I want you to mark, what is a fact and what is an opinion. Facts are something that you as a researcher, a scientist, a student, a human being, something that you can prove.

Paris (Interview):
I want them to understand, when they're reading through informational text, that often times authors will present something as a fact when it's not being backed up, so I just want them to be able to differentiate, but really the goal behind any text marking is to focus them on the text.

Paris:
What I'm trying to get you to do is start to think about how you feel about this topic, and eventually you're going to back up your opinions with the things that you've read from these articles. All right, in these small groups on the note page provided, I want you to work together. What you're going to do is you're going to find and label the notes. And on the right hand side, you have four different columns. It says, money, maturity, behavior, maturity, experience. You have to categorize those notes.

Student 2:
Sixteen-year-old drivers are involved in fatal crashes at the rate-- at a rate nearly five times the rate of drivers twenty or older, so totally maturity too. Because they're talking about the age.

Student 3:
I really don't know. It's probably most likely between maturity and education, and behavior.

Paris (Interview):
After they finish the directed note taking, I have them get into larger groups, and this is where we start to move into the philosophical chairs aspect, which can also be done as a Socratic seminar or any other kind of discussion technique.

Paris:
Philosophical chairs always has some sort of side issue. All right? Remember, it is not a debate because we don't win. It is a discussion because we share our opinions. That's the difference between debate and discussion.

Paris (Interview):
It's called a jury-style philosophical chair. They are moved into groups of about five. They elect a jury floor person, and they're going to decide as a jury after reading the text again and discussing it amongst their peers where they fall on a basic question.

Student 3:
Sixteen-year-old drivers are involved in fatal crashes at a rate nearly five times the rate of adults. People twenty years or older. So, if you're sixteen, that leaves four years of immaturity and reckless driving.

Student 4:
I still disagree, 'cause-- Do you guys want to drive at eighteen instead of sixteen?

Student 1 + 3:
Yes.

Student 4:
You would rather wait two more years than you need to. And what if you have a job?

Student 5:
It's like saying in paragraph 10 that they want to be like, oh it's all teenagers, but it's actually, there's more people twenty to forty-nine years old who are killed because of alcohol poisoning than teens are. So it's like, you can't exactly blame the entire teen population for that.

Paris (Interview):
This is one of my favorite things about this lesson, is how strong it is in its collaborative discussion. Um, even though I have them start out individually, the real meat of this lesson lies in the Common Core standard of collaborative discussion.

Paris:
Now is the time to use your challenge card. What I want you to do is, as a group, come up with one question for another jury that either clarifies or asks them to challenge their opinion.

Student 5:
When you were reading from paragraph 10, you only said half of what they had said, and it read, um, only about ten percent of the sixteen-year-old drivers killed in 2003 had blood-alcohol concentrations of 0.10 or higher. But you didn't finish the sentence that says, compared with forty-three percent of twenty to forty-nine-year-old drivers killed according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Paris:
Dang! How do you respond? Your whole group can take part in that.

Student 1:
Okay. Well can you find a positive quote in this article that has to do with keeping the age sixteen?

Paris (Interview):
One of the goals of Common Core is, once they get out of high school, will they be able to survive in college or in a career? Will they be able to discuss their ideas with their peers.

Student 3:
But when you're starting at sixteen, since you don't have that much experience, you are risking more lives.

Student 5:
No, the article says that if you're gonna start at eighteen, it's the same thing as starting at sixteen, 'cause you're not-- you're not gonna be driving…

Student 1:
I object!

Paris:
You gotta hang on for one second. Now, you guys, the important part about this is not to win an argument. The important part is that you have gone to the text for fact, you've gone to the text to create your argument, and that's how you form an argumentative essay, which is what our goal is today anyway.

Paris (Interview):
I think Common Core is still a mystery to a lot of teachers, but in reality it simplifies life. Every grade level is headed towards the same goal. And so, while we do it differently in grade levels, or it's on a different, it's on a different plane, the direction that we're all headed in is the same. And so, now, now that I have my head wrapped around Common Core I actually enjoy it a lot more. I feel like it gives me more freedom with my curriculum.