Part 2 Planting the Seeds of Democratic Discussion & Decision-Making

Many teachers begin the year with their students by creating norms, expectations or ground rules. Ive done this in the past, although in a very teachercentered style. I would brainstorm ideas with students, document the ideas on a poster (filtering a lot of what the students were saying) and make the final decision of what went on the poster. Often, I would come to the discussion with a pre-formed idea of what I wanted to be on the list. In my mind, this was allowing student input, while assuring that I safely held the ultimate power. This year, since we were going to build a semester project from scratch with the kids, we decided to take a democratic approach to developing these class expectations. Again, we turned to an approach used by Rick Springers Soundings program, called Affirmations. These communal aspirations are adjectives that a class uses to describe themselves and their work together (2006). The focus is on process: How will we accomplish our goals this year? After the list of affirmations was created, we used them to guide the development of a Bill of Rights for our class. In the following sections I will walk through the process we used to build our Affirmations and conclude it with an analysis of a student survey that we took at the end of the process.

List of the adjectives we brainstormed to describe our learning community

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 Creating the Team Affirmations (Day 1)

Creating the affirmations laid the groundwork for co-design in our project. The process we used would be repeated when we designed the project. Students independently brainstormed a list of five or six words we should use to describe our learning community. Next, in groups of four, students shared their ideas, creating a master list of ideas at their table. No ideas were excluded to ensure a sense of value placed on everyones initial ideas. Springer emphasizes the importance of hearing all voices at this stage: The point here is to demonstrate to the community of students that you are truly serious about hearing everyones voice Any student who feels his or her ideas have not been included will begin to feel disenfranchised, and cracks in the communitys foundation will result cracks that can have devastating effects later in the year (2006, p 43). Ms. Wong and I carefully reminded students to honor one anothers ideas and avoid editing ideas this early on. Finally, at a class meeting (led by a student facilitator), each group shared out their list of affirmations. As a class, we compiled one master list (we marked duplicates with stars). Ms. Wong and I were really pleased with the ideas produced by the students (pictured above). The class master list included every idea that I would have dreamed on my own. Certainly, there were more sophisticated words that I would have included if I was in control. However, it was important for the students to put these ideas into their own, authentic language. Initially, we started with a sprawling list of 60 words. Our next challenge was to whittle it down to a more manageable size. This is where the negotiation, perspective taking and consensus building (core aspects of a democratic approach) came in.

Affirmations Discussion (Day 2)

The following day, we began class with a question: How do we get this list down to 10 words? We challenged the students to eliminate redundant and whimsical ideas. Again, we used the method of moving ideas from the individual to a small group and finally to the whole team to get this done. In table groups, students examined the list of 60 adjectives and boiled it down to their top 10 ideas. At the end of this process, we regrouped for a team meeting where a captain from each group read their list of 10 words. Again, a student facilitator circled, starred and crossed out words noting each groups ideas. At this point, we narrowed the list down to 40 words. Initially, I was hoping that they would agree on more of the same words (speeding up the process). However, Ms. Wong and I realized this presented a great opportunity for true negotiation and a deeper examination and consideration of word meanings. Our thinking was that a closer inspection of word meanings would help students boil down their ideas. We put our Affirmations

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discussion on hold until students had a chance to do this. Over the next two days, students defined the 40 words. They would then use their definitions to inform the next step of the Affirmations conversation.

Hurdle: Restlessness & Distraction at the Team Meeting

This pause in the process also helped Ms. Wong and I consider something else that we were seeing (which was later supported in the findings of a student survey detailed at the end of this section). Getting a group of fifty-six 6th graders to sit still, listen and participate in a discussion lasting longer than ten or fifteen minutes is challenging. While the table discussions were focused, our class meetings were less so. At each meeting, there was a group of at least a dozen students who shifted restlessly on the floor and engaged in distracting side chatter, slowing down the class discussion. We werent seeing the 100 percent participation that we had hoped for. Our hunch was that this restlessness communicated a type of boredom caused by a lack of understanding the purpose and process of the discussion or simply the wrong discussion format for many of our learners. I also noticed that most of those disengaged in the discussion were boys. This informal observation led us to make modifications in our discussion format early on. The first modification was the introduction of a Graffiti Discussion to solicit more engagement. We also put students in chairs, so they could be more comfortable, and made an effort to shorten the discussions. Twenty-five minutes seemed to mark a boiling point.

Affirmations Discussion: Graffiti Discussion (Day 3)

In my morning English-Language Arts class, I had introduced a method of silent, written conversation called Graffiti Discussion (where students created a mind map on the white board to discuss a class novel) (Shaddox, 2013). This method was popular with many of the students and solicited equitable participation. We decided to use it for the next stage of our Affirmations discussion, knowing that we needed to hear everyones voice. We also thought the visual aspect of this activity might help students identify trends in class wide thinking. We began the discussion by selecting 10 students to approach the board, while the rest sat in a theater-style arrangement, facing the board. These 10 students were asked to write the most important affirmations (in their opinion) on the wall with the definition. Next, they returned to their seat and selected another student to write their #1 word (like a relay race). Every student had the opportunity to write one word. If their first choice had already been written, they could add another important word or pass. After all of the words were added, we moved into a second stage where students expressed support for words, by placing a post-it note next to them. They were asked to write their name and an explanation of their support for the word. We gave each student 3 post-its. At the end of this round, a final list of popular words began to emerge. This would serve as a talking point for our fourth Affirmations discussion.

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Students clarify definitions and express their support for words during a graffiti discussion.

Using graffiti discussions like this helped us capture the conversation for further analysis.

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Students participate in a discussion around our Affirmations.

Affirmations Discussion - Graffiti Discussion Debrief (Day 4)

During this round of discussion, Ms. Wong and I led the group through a process of consensus building. The idea was to find similarities in ideas, rather than differences. We asked students to analyze the graffiti discussion, reading the post-it notes and their explanations of support, and consider which words were emerging as most supported by students. Our guidelines for the discussion were simple: Everyone joins the conversation, one hand, one voice and demonstrate support for an idea through a raised thumbs up. By the end of 45 minutes, students had helped create a more finalized list of 6 affirmations (which everyone agreed on) creative, hardworking, supportive, honest, collaborative and respectful. Another list of possible word also formed. These were highly supported, but had not garnered consensus. One major point of contention among students began to arise the word awesome. Half of the class loved it, while the other half argued that it was too vague. Im not sure that awesome is the best word for our list, explained Gwyn. We can picture how to be supportive or respectful, but how do we know what awesome looks like? Gwyns point garnered a massive showing of thumbs up. Still others balked at its exclusion. Deonte exclaimed, Yeah, but awesome is just awesome! Who doesnt want to be awesome? Cheers arose from a group of excited boys. Another sweep of thumbs up hit the air. We were at an impasse.

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This consensus decision-making was really tough to facilitate. At many points in the discussion, Ms. Wong and I felt like pushing through with what we thought were the best ideas. Would one final decision by a teacher on one word make a difference? Would it shatter the sense of democracy we were trying to build? My gut said, Stick with the process. Make them navigate this and reason through it. Then theyll own it and have a sense of true democracy.

Affirmations Discussion - The Awesome Activity (Day 5)

Ms. Wong and I constructed an activity for the following day that would help illuminate the true meaning of awesome and facilitate a final discussion to determine whether it should be included on our Affirmations list or replaced by a more suitable synonym. We had a hunch that our students could think of a more specific and relevant word. We presented tables of four with envelopes containing word strips. Students were asked to organize them into two groups: antonyms and synonyms of awesome. They examined words like terrible, fearful, magnificent, motivated, awe-inspiring. We wanted to show them the multiple meanings of the word and have them consider what they meant by being awesome students. Sure enough, students were surprised to find out that the word could mean terrible or frightening, as well as incredible and great. In the class-discussion that followed, students suggested replacing awesome with wonderful, inspirational, motivated, phenomenal, amazing, magnificent and passionate. This was a healthy list of words! However, our attempt to boil down ideas had blown up in our face. We had now added 7 more words to our list! How were we going to wrap up this Affirmations discussion?

Affirmations Discussion - Tyranny of the Majority? (Day 6)

We were now moving into day six of our Affirmations class discussions. Ms. Wong and I had intended the process to last three days. We were beginning to wonder if it was all worth it. We still had to complete our Bill of Rights and begin designing a project. Were we losing momentum with our students? Were they starting to give up on the idea of consensus discussions as an effective way of making decisions? For better or worse, we decided to take a majority vote on the word that would replace awesome. Springer (2006) argues against the implementation of the majority vote, arguing that it can create a tyranny of the majority. He recommends having students consider the benefits of working it out through consensus. In this situation, Ms. Wong and I risked the vote. A number of students were pressing for its implementation. Why dont we just vote? This is how we make decisions in our country, Jack pointed out. A show of thumbs up sprang up around him. If we dont take a vote we wont be able to decide on this word. I think it seems fair, explained George. Weve tried a consensus and its not working.

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We continued to use these Affirmations to guide our learning community throughout the entire school year.

In this situation, it seemed that supporting the suggestions of the students (who sincerely wanted to resolve the issue) outweighed sticking to our agenda of consensus democracy. After all, democracy has always been a great experiment and we owed it to our students to give them the chance to be a part of that experiment. The majority of the students voted for the word passionate. There were some rumblings from students who disagreed on using a majority vote. However, these few seemed willing to compromise for the greater good of our Affirmations. We then rounded out the list of Affirmations with three more words: organized, patient and unique. At the conclusion of the class, we celebrated our Affirmations with a call & response song to the tune of We Will Rock You by Queen. There was a sense of accomplishment and togetherness in our singing that afternoon. As a community, we had worked hard to build this list of words. The use of the majority vote didnt seem to overshadow this.

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 Student Reactions to the Affirmations Process

After creating our Affirmations together, students were polled on their feelings and sense of fairness and control throughout the process. Since we wanted to hone our decision-making process with the students, it was important for us to gain some insight into their experience (beyond our observations).

Feelings about the Affirmations Process

The first question on our survey was How did you feel about the way we made affirmations for our class? Explain. This question aimed to get a general sense of the students experiences. Out of 53 students polled, 37 felt positive about the Affirmations process. A strong majority of our students could see the value of collaboration and widespread participation in the process. I feel good because, since we put so much time and effort into choosing just 10 words, it resulted in choosing really good ones. I think this process was useful. Now, weve got a list of words that will define our team and everyone will really support these ideas. - Grant I felt that we were collaborative with each other and that we did a great job working together. - Summer I feel that these affirmations were made fairly because we all had a say in our class laws. - Gabe I feel like it went really well. Almost everyone showed support and helped out." - Parker I felt good. It was fun when we voted a lot and got to do the chant when we were done. Everyone was excited after we did the chant. - Trinity Sixteen students mentioned feeling like the process was boring. Many of these students mentioned the length of the process.

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I think it took us a long time. I was a little bit bored because of this. I was pretty anxious though to find out which words would be chosen. - Sutton I dont know how I felt about this process, but I know that it took a long time to finish. - Tamora I felt anxious because it was a long process and I was a little bored. - Madeline These type of comments confirmed what Ms. Wong and I were feeling throughout the discussions. We realized that we needed to rethink the process that we would use to build our Bill of Rights and upcoming project. Students valued the opportunity to be a part of the decision-making, but we needed to find a way to gear it more appropriately towards their 6th grade attention spans and various learning styles.

Sense of Fairness & Control

The next two questions solicited the students sense of fairness and sense of control in the process. Sixty-five percent thought the process was fair for some people, while 35 percent believed it was fair for everyone involved. When considering who had control, 63 percent believed students & teachers and 35 percent thought students. Only two percent (or one student) believed the teachers had total control.

Affirmations Survey

Ms. Wong and I knew that we had to develop decision-making structures that would enhance our students feelings of fairness. Fair for everyone We wanted that 65 percent 35% who thought it was fair for Fair for some people to feel like some everyone was being treated people fairly. After examining this 65% survey, we felt like we were off to a strong start towards meeting the goal of making all students feel like they were a core part of the decision-making (in control). Throughout the Affirmations process, Ms. Wong and I facilitated a lot of the discussions. That was nearly six days of teachers spending time in front of the class. We

Sense of Fairness

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also facilitated the final presentation of the Affirmations (with a poster and song, written by yours truly). Our thought was, if we could decrease the amount of time for making decisions, Students reduce our role as chief 35% facilitators (putting students in more control) and break Students students into smaller groups & Teachers (increasing their opportunity 63% for talk time) we could help Teachers students feel that the process 2% was less long and boring and even more fair. As we set out to create our Bill of Rights, we called on democracys secret weapon for decision-making the committee. With fingers crossed, we took our next steps in co-design.

Who Has Control?

Creating the Team Bill of Rights

Throughout his work with co-design, Springer (2006) mentions the use of steering committees to make certain decisions. Ms. Wong and I took note of this and borrowed the idea for our next steps. The day after completing our Affirmations, we launched our students into a brainstorm of our rights as learners. We knew that if we were going to design our semester project together, wed need to take the same approach to building class norms. We began with a simple journal entry: What is a right and what rights do you have in school? Students responses were varied, but reflected a widespread desire to exist in a classroom community that valued individuals and promoted their free participation. We have the right to tell someone to be more respectful. We have the right to share ideas. I have the right to being able to contribute to discussion, having credibility and being able to make my own decisions. We have the right to speak for ourselves. I have the right to learn new things and give ideas. I have the right to ask for help.

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This activity was preceded by a few smaller activities centering around democracy. In class, we watched a cartoon about democracy, in which students learned basic terminology, to describe democracy. Next, students had a homework assignment asking them to examine the U.S. Bill of Rights. We asked students to examine the language used in the document. Then, they translated the rights given to citizens into their own terms. I even brought out my old replica of the Bill of Rights that Id purchased on a school trip to the National Archives. Students gaped at the weathered manuscript like it was an artifact from Ancient Egypt. I explained that even though it seemed like an antiquated concept, democracy played a vital role in virtually every aspect of their lives and would continue to do so even at school. It was hard for me to hold back the democratic rhetoric. Ive been known to sing the praises of the Ancient Athenians and their democratic discoveries in past years as if I were an actual participant at the Agora. This year, I decided to reel in the drama a bit and let the students discover the power of democracy for themselves. The whole point was for them to own it, not for me to imbue it.

Bill of Rights - The Big Brainstorm (Day 1)

Self

Small Group

Whole Class

The flow of the idea generating process

After getting acquainted with the Bill of Rights, we set the students loose to brainstorm the rights they should have in the class. We directed their attention to our Affirmations, explaining that our rights should support these adjectives in our classroom. Again, we utilized the method of developing ideas from self to small group to whole class, which we used to create our Affirmations. In tables of four, students responded to the prompt: What rights do we need in our classroom to achieve our Affirmations this year? We encouraged them to write as many ideas as possible. Some ideas were axiomatic: If a student is talking you should show respect and not talk while they are. All students have the right to use the bathroom.

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I was particularly interested in the ideas that went beyond typical classroom norms: All students have the right to draw. Students have the right to be supported by their classmates. Students have the right to be creative in their work. I was struck by the way that our students were able to generate the norms that teachers would typically create for their classes. The amazing thing was the way that students went beyond the ideas we would present in a teacher-driven fashion. Best of all, they used their own authentic language.

Example of a brainstorm poster during our Bill of Rights process

After brainstorming, students read their ideas aloud. Next, the groups looked for commonalities. Students circled ideas that appeared most often. After this group activity, we engaged students in a gallery walk of everyones posters. The goal was to cross-pollinate ideas and get students to see ideas shared across the class. Each student was equipped with a clipboard and a handout with the following questions: 1. What rights come up most often on our posters? 2. What rights should be a part of our Bill of Rights? 3. What rights should not be included in our Bill of Rights? As we played some light, ambient music, students circulated around the classroom and jotted notes.

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At the conclusion of the gallery walk, we asked everyone to join us for a team meeting. Students assembled on the floor with their clipboards. Ms. Wong and I led them through a share-out of ideas. As students shared their ideas, we typed them into a document, projected at the front of the class. By the end of the discussion we had 59 rights! Finally, we explained that we were going to use a different approach than the consensus discussion to finalize our teams Bill of Rights. We solicited volunteers for a committee (which would meet in the following week to draft the document and present it to the class). Quickly, hands popped up to volunteer. I was struck by the level of students excitement about being part of this decision (despite the fact that 16 students had expressed being bored by the Affirmations discussions). Ms. Wong and I wrote down the volunteers names and announced that we would announce the committee during the next team meeting. In composing the committee, we strove for an equitable mix of gender and types of students. The students in the group were George, Luke, Gabe, Parker, Vernon, Rochelle, Carmen, Victoria, Summer, and Mia Over the next 2 days (3 hours), they worked with Ms. Wong outside of class to boil down the ideas of the class to create a clear, cohesive Bill of Rights. They met in the 6th grade commons (a shared work area) while the rest of the team forged ahead with some other work (and Affirmations book).

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 Bill of Rights - The Committee Process (Day 2 & 3)

Step 1: Students began by analyzing the class brainstorm of rights and searched for ways to eliminate redundant ideas and summarize ideas.

Step 2: The group arrived at 4 categories (Respect, Self-Expression, How We Work Together, Rights of American Citizens). They cut the rights into slips and categorized them.

Step 3: Once the slips had been categorized, the group decided to eliminate the Rights of American Citizens category (deciding that it didnt need to be stated in our class document). Next, they transferred the ideas from slips to our final poster.

Step 4: Finally, the Bill of Rights was presented to the entire team by the committee. Each member of the committee took a turn presenting and explaining ideas. It was a hit! After a few suggestions from the class, the document was finalized.

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2012 SHADDOX/WONG TEAM Bill of Rights A. Respect All students have the right to... 1. Be treated honestly, kindly and equally by peers and teachers. 2. Be treated by others as they would want to be treated (The Golden Rule). 3. Have their feelings and opinions respected by their classmates. B. Self Expression All students have the right to... 1. Be respected for their uniqueness. 2. Voice their ideas and opinions in a group conversation. 3. Be passionate about their work. 4. Express their creativity. 5. Talk to their teachers about how they feel in the classroom. C. Work Ethic (How We Work Together) All students have the right to... 1. Be fun and caring 2. An environment where they can listen, pay attention and concentrate 3. Have their ideas respected and supported by their peers 4. Have a second chance when making a mistake All students should... 1. Work hard on their tasks 2. Be quiet and loud when necessary 3. Have patience while waiting for help from the teacher 4. Be prepared for learning 5. Collaborate with others when needed

Student Reactions to the Bill of Rights Process

After the Bill of Rights process, we surveyed the students again. The results were interesting. This time, even though we moved from a direct democracy to a representative democracy (with our committee) the sense of fairness increased. We saw a rise in the sense of fairness for all (from 35 percent to 45 percent) and a decrease in the perception that it was only fair for some people (from 65 percent to 52 percent). Accompanying this sense of fairness was an increase in the perception that students had control (from 35 percent to 58 percent). While I knew the committee would streamline

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the process, I feared it might decrease the class perception of fairness, but apparently that groups decision-making and presentation (which was entirely student-led) assured the class that the process was still in the hands of the students.

Bill of Rights Survey

Sense of Fairness
Unfair 3% Fair for everyone 45%

Who Has Control?

Students & Teachers 40%

Fair for some people 52%

Students 58%

Teachers 2%

Student Perceptions of Fairness

Many students expressed support for the way we made the Bill of Rights in their written feedback on exit surveys. Some students noted the fairness of the process: I liked how we got to put rights that we made. I also liked it because almost all of our ideas were put into the Bill of Rights. - Thalia I felt really good about the way we did the Bill of Rights. I especially liked when the committee came to show us their first draft and we could tell them what to change about it. - Cameron I felt that it was fair because a group of very smart students came up with the ideas and many people agreed with them. - Natalia

Bill of Rights Committee Impressions

Students who participated in the committee agreed that the process was challenging, but noted that the end result was worth it.

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I feel like the committee worked very hard to make the Bill of Rights. I was a member of the crew and it was very hard to make fifteen to twenty rights. I think we made a great Bill of Rights. - Parker Gabe, who had been an active participant in full-class discussions, appreciated the opportunity to take the decision-making to a smaller group. I think the Bill of Rights was made fairly because people who were representatives were the ones participating earlier in the class discussions. - Gabe

Further Voices: Democratic Kinks

Grant, a thoughtful and vocal student, did not volunteer for the committee. Ms. Wong and I were a bit surprised, since he showed excitement for expressing his opinion and brainstorming with his peers in other activities. During our full-class discussions he had a tendency to withdraw, fidget, and showed a lack of interest in listening to his classmates. He expressed impatience and often asked, When are we gonna finish with this? and Why cant we start the project? In the end, he was satisfied with the results, even though he still showed indifference towards the Bill of Rights. I feel that it works perfectly, but am one of those people who doesnt really care about what it says. [In this experience] I learned that including everyone, while not forcing people to be included, works really well. - Grant Grant revealed an attitude reminiscent of many American voters: I want the opportunity to participate in a democracy, but that doesnt mean I want to be forced into participating. I want the right to abstain. I think this is important to consider when approaching learning democratically with students. The success of the democracy is largely based on the participants sense that they have a choice in how they participate. This creates buy-in.

The Loss of A Direct Democracy

Even though there was an overwhelming sense that our Bill of Rights was successful, there were some students who lamented the loss of our direct democracy. Arwen shared her feelings in the short response of our exit survey: I feel that it should have been more of everybodys choice because some students decided what rights there should be and they disqualified some (ideas).

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Arwen, like a few other students, believed that some of her ideas had been lost in the committees actions to boil down the rights into a palatable list.

Teacher Conclusions & Questions About The Democratic Process

Throughout making our Affirmations and Bill of Rights, our class retraced the path of democracys evolution; from the Agora in Ancient Athens (300 B.C.) to Independence Hall in Philadelphia (1776 A.D.); from direct to representative democracy. Talk about experiential learning! As one student, Augustus, expressed, I feel happy, like a person voting for a new president. Based on surveys, observations and conversations with students I have come to some conclusions about democratic decision-making and discussions with students. Throughout the Affirmations process, Ms. Wong and I facilitated the discussions. That was nearly four days of teacher-led discussions. We also facilitated the final presentation of the Affirmations. During the Bill of Rights process we reduced the teachers role as facilitator by delegating more power to the committee. This streamlined the process and reduced the amount of time it took. Even though the Bill of Rights process was less directly democratic, it increased the overall sense of fairness and student control for the rest of the class (as revealed by the survey). In contrast to the Affirmations process, students didnt describe the Bill of Rights process as being boring or long. Although I noticed one student declared the committee process unfair and another cited teachers as being in control, the overall sense was that it went better with this second approach. My conclusion is, when using democratic modes of discussion and decision-making with your students, dont let the process drag too long and dont be afraid of moving to a representative democracy at early signs of fatigue. This democratic approach generated more questions than it did conclusions, however. What is the optimal balance between fairness and effectiveness when creating a democracy with your students? If even one student feels excluded from the democratic process, does it undermine everything youve done? What effects do committees have on the health of the class democracy? Are the negative side effects worth it?

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