Philosophy Warm-Ups
As we head back into classrooms after the summer, I thought the topic of warming up to philosophy would make for an appropriate first fall blog post.
When I am regularly in a classroom facilitating philosophy sessions, I try to develop a consistent structure for the session. This does not involve an attempt to control the content of the philosophical topics explored in the sessions, as it is my view that student ownership of the questions is deeply important. However, in my experience, putting into place a coherent and reliable framework helps to create a space ripe for philosophical inquiry.
I like to begin sessions with a meditative or quiet activity. This can be as simple as asking students to sit in silence for a couple of minutes, to suggesting that we all sit quietly and try to hear the farthest sounds we can, to a brief journal writing or art activity. After that, some kind of philosophical warm-up activity is an effective way to help students move into the mode of philosophical thinking, before then moving into the prompt, philosophical discussion and/or activity, and then a closure activity.
This summer my colleague David Shapiro and I put together a list of philosophical warm-up activities, which can be found here. We thought it would be helpful to organize them by topic — ethics, epistemology, aesthetics, etc. — but any of them can work for any session.
Frequently, particularly in the early part of the school year, these warm-ups can launch the students into an extended conversation that takes up most of the session, and then you can follow that up with some kind of closure exercise. I will write more about closure activities in a later blog post.
Looking forward to another inspiring year of philosophical conversations with young people.
