Case Study | Adamson Middle School

In their own words

Topical Talk has been absolutely amazing. It has really given our students an opportunity to engage in academic discussion and discourse. They have been having very high levels of discussion within the classroom. Students are actually finding themselves interested in topics that they thought were not relevant to them. I love when I go into the classrooms to watch the students working on different topics with the teacher, it’s like a different level of engagement. They are so engaged. They say: “Okay, Mr. Wright, don’t say anything to us. We’re trying to figure this out. We have to finish this task. We have summons.” They responded so well to the challenge. And it is challenging. It involves rigour, it involves current events, and it involves civic engagement. So I think all of those things really have made the Festival what it is.

The student’s favourite topic was about the protest in Iran, which surprised me. I thought that they were going to respond to the space topic, or maybe the Black Panther one because they might feel closer to those topics. But the one they got involved in was the one with the protest in Iran. It was very eye-opening for them and they were able to work through difficult conversations and decisions.

Impact on teaching

Topical Talk has also had a positive effect on my teaching and the teaching of colleagues. I’ve noticed a stronger use of planned academic discussion with differentiation, including high-level questioning. Teachers are bringing a focus on high inquiry into their daily teachings. When I go around the classrooms, I can see that happening more. One teacher has even begun to model his lessons on Topical Talk now. He said: “Hey, I think I want all my lessons to be built in this manner”. So he and I are going to sit down and try to see if we can play with some of his lessons for next semester and adapt them to bring in more questions, like in Topical Talk.

Most of our teachers running Topical Talk are also social studies teachers. So they have an extra lens to look through related to their content. They can help students make connections between Topical Talk topics and their subject content. So they’re adding it to their regular everyday instruction as well.