World Café Challenges Students to Think Deeply

For several years now, English teacher Jerri Davenport has facilitated the World Café—an annual community discussion around a philosophical novel each of her sophomore students is required to read. On November 18, during their regular eighty-minute class periods, tenth graders met at round tables in the Upper School Game Room for structured yet lively discussion sessions during which participants pondered and posed questions, shared their views, and at times even got a little passionate about the ideas presented in Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit. The World Café has always involved Principia community members, and this year was no exception. Administrators, School and Business Office staff members, and parents were energetic participants at each table, although student hosts handled the logistics (such as passing out question cards, snacks, and drinks) and served as discussion leaders.

Winner of the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship Award, Ishmael is the first book in a trilogy by Daniel Quinn that uses the Socratic method to examine cultural myths and challenge notions of human supremacy and the benefit of civilization. Although not all of the students agreed with Quinn’s arguments, all of them had comments about the ideas in the book—evolution, ethics, environmentalism, greed, responsibility, war, and so on. This is one of the primary reasons Davenport includes Ishmael in her curriculum each year. She explains, “I don’t ask the students to have a particular response to the book, only to respond in some way to the ideas—to engage and think deeply.” And in order to allow her students to be as authentic as possible in their responses, Davenport chooses “the Café” as her tool to assess student learning instead of a more traditional class discussion model or writing a literary analysis of the book. Students (and adult participants) seem to enjoy every minute of it.

Upper School parent Laurel Walters shares her perspective: “I’ve been participating in Jerri’s World Café since the beginning. It’s always a great opportunity to connect with the sophomores. Our students are great thinkers, so it’s inspiring to share ideas and learn from them. I really enjoy the chance to see the students in action. I appreciate that Jerri is bringing the larger community into her coursework and always looking for new ways to expand her students’ thought processes and interactions.”