Clarke Central High School English department teacher Grace Crumpton’s fourth-period class engages in an academic circle before lunch. CCHS sophomore Sasha London enjoys these circles to discuss real-world topics with the class. “I like them because it gives us time before we go to second lunch. It gives me time to be open, and talk about topics that are happening in the real world,” London said. Photo by Naomi Hendershot
The Clarke Central High School 10th grade English department has begun to implement academic circles into the 10th-grade literature curriculum.
Clarke Central High School English department teacher Grace Crumpton, along with other English teachers, have recently started incorporating academic circles into their class curriculum.
“The idea is that you can use so in class. It’s usually like we have a theme to discuss in something that we’re reading, and so we’ll do the discussion as a circle format,” Crumpton said. “But you can also use a circle to introduce a new topic and see what kids already know. You can use it to review at the end of the unit and talk about what they’ve been learning and stuff. There are a lot of different ways to use it.”
Crumpton took inspiration for the academic circles from the restorative justice circles that are conducted during advisement.
“I’m on the implementation team for restorative justice at the school. I was really interested, when I did the training in the summer, they mentioned that restorative justice can work as an academic tool as well,” Crumpton said. “So I asked for kind of some more clarity on how to do it, and there are just some options for how to take what you’re already doing in your classroom and do it in a circle format to make the learning more meaningful.”
Since the recent use of academic circles in the classroom, Crumpton has noticed an improvement in student engagement.
“I saw a lot more engagement and a lot of perspectives shared that wouldn’t be shared and just a lot of genuine involvement in learning,” Crumpton said.
However, not all students haven’t had such a positive response. CCHS sophomore Fredrick Gabriel believes that academic circles are a poor use of class time.
“They’re a waste of time. I could be doing my homework or studying something for my test in my next period, but now I have to listen to people talk about their opinions I don’t really care about,” Gabriel said.
As for CCHS sophomore Sasha London, these class discussions help her better understand the literature they’re reading in class.
“Sometimes we talk about the topics that relate to the books we’re reading. So that helps me to understand the book more,” London said.
