Case Study | Martha Ellen Stilwell School of the Arts

How Topical Talk facilitates student-led discussions in a high school setting

Key learnings

Martha Ellen Stilwell School of the Arts, part of Clayton County Public Schools (CCPS) in Georgia, serves a diverse and underserved student population with a focus on creative arts education. Despite being in a district where exam preparation dominates, the school’s teacher, Mr Dittomasso, embraced Topical Talk as a way to enrich his American history and social studies curriculum. He took part in the Teacher Leadership Programme with CCPS, which included attending training sessions and running an action-research project with his class over at least six weeks.

To align with a module on the rule of law, Mr Dittomasso adapted an existing Topical Talk resource on UK knife crime. He spent 1–2 days tailoring the content to suit his class of 17-year-olds, showing his commitment to bringing real-world issues into the classroom. He found that Topical Talk’s flexible, student-led, Socratic structure worked well with his teaching approach: “The entire way that Topical Talk lessons have been designed… they’re built with a Socratic-oriented planning in mind. You're either having students work individually with partners, they’re in a small group, or at times you're having a whole group discussion.”

Students explored topics that directly affected them and their communities – such as knife crime – while also bringing in global perspectives from places like El Salvador and Haiti. They were given the space to lead discussions, reflect, and express different viewpoints. One student explained, “I think it’s really special to be able to lead the discussions with your classmates and talk about things that are actually important to you.”

Others appreciated the balance of structure and autonomy the programme allowed: “I really like the solution-oriented approach when we’re given the facts so we can discuss. It makes it a more open space for people to disagree – respectfully disagree.”

Mr Dittomasso also noted how Topical Talk helped students link what they were learning to their own lives and develop essential life skills, such as active listening and public speaking. For a group of students not often given opportunities to lead in this way, the programme gave them both the tools and the platform to do so.