Walking into a new school can be quite intimidating for freshmen. However, the Clemente Wildcat freshmen are not your typical freshman class. Already, students are open-minded enough to communicate with each other just four weeks into the start of the school year.
In their world studies class, all freshmen participated in our Socratic Seminar. As International Baccalaureate students, they jumped into a discussion about consumer systems and the impact it has on their lives. Through the Socratic Seminar, Clemente freshmen demonstrated the power of language as they were able to lead and direct a class through verbal and nonverbal communication.
Students discussed articles from The Atlantic, “The Racial Divide of Sneakers,” as well as the song “Wings” made famous by recording artist Macklemore. After annotating and analyzing both texts, students discussed how their findings impacted their own lives. Much of the class was spent discussing the racial divide of clothing, what makes a student popular, and what the Clemente freshman class can do to change some of the impacts of these systems. One class discussed the idea of donating some of their more expensive clothing to those in need.
Students will now use this information to work on their summative project presentation where they will communicate to the class how certain systems impact their own identity. Using what they have learned, students will interview someone in their life that can inform them on how their lives have been impacted by different systems. After the first successful Socratic Seminar, the teachers are excited to see what students will create for their final summative!