Context

The Novel Study was a hands-on approach to students working with Socratic Seminars. Students met in a circle, to share and discuss what they read nightly. Students would bring to the table their discussion points, their homework from the previous night, and any questions they might have. One goal for the seminars is to have students understand the ideas and thoughts of others and listening to each others' answers. Participants must practice the seminars, and be able to disagree without being disagreeable.

Impact of Student Learning

The "Novel Study" was created to allow students to experience different ways of learning through a series of Socratic Seminars and a final project. Students learned how to discuss the novel using a book seminar (English Language Arts, Competency Goal 1). Students, then shared the interactions with the text before, during and after reading and listening to each other through the weekly Socratic Seminars, and their final projects. (English Language Arts, Goal 2). Students shared their projects with one another by using technology, art, and language arts.

Alignment

The following NCDPI Elementary Education Standards were met by:

NCDPI Standard 1, Indicator 4 was met through the use of weekly Socratic Seminars. Each student was responsible for listening, speaking, reading and writing throughout the Seminar in a variety ofways. Students were responsible for listening to the comments of one another, speaking their mind about a topic, reading the required reading nightly, and writing the assignment for the necessary day.

NCDPI Standard 4,Indicator 3 was met through the comparing and contrasting the character's environment to the environment of us individually, our families, our neighborhoods, and our communities.

NCDPI Standard 4, Indicator 6 was met through knowing the basic concepts of reading a map. Students created a map of New York City by reading the chapter of the book, and following the directions of the author.

NCDPI Standard 4, Indicator 11 was met through the promotion of citizenship and by discussing throughout the Mock Trial whether the main characters, Natalie and Zoe were responsible, integrible, self-displicined, caring, respectful, courageous, and peserved for their goal.

NCDPI Standard 6, Indicator 1 was met by teaching the basic vocabularies of art; by helping students learn different techniques and work with different materials to create their artistic masterpieces with their Novel Projects.

NCDPI Standard 8, Indicator 1 was met by teaching students a different text, and what it meant to the students emphasized through a literature circle.

NCDPI Standard 8, Indicator 2 was met by helping students use a variety of statgies such as underlining unknown words, researching different facts, and becoming comfortable with a dictionary to look up words they do not know.

NCDPI Standard 8, Indicator 3 was met by guiding students through the Socratic Seminar. Students thoguht critically about the text they were reading, and on several occasions through the book about the text such as, chapter summaries, journals about what they were reading, letters to the editor, and the main characters.

NCDPI Standard 8, Indicator 4 was met by encouraging students' to enjoy what they were reading. The teacher asked students to compare the books they were reading on their own and rate them from a 1-10. Students were then asked to rate the novel.

NCDPI Standard 8, Indicator 5 was met by providing students with different opportunities to explore a different genres of writings such as journals, summarizations, letters to the editor, film strips, and biographies of the main characters.