7th Grade Harkness Discussions with Ashley Johnson

At its core, the Harkness Method embraces student-driven conversation as a way to deepen learning and understanding. Students sit in a circle, facing one another, and participate in an open dialogue, using discussion questions as guideposts. Similar to many high school and college classes, this method increases student responsibility and gives them the agency to determine the depth of both their engagement with the group and the text. It challenges students to develop and support their own ideas, collaborate with peers, and practice engaging in a constructive discussion. 

Beforehand, Ashley provided her students with a rubric outlining the expectations for Harkness discussions, informing students what successful participation looked and sounded like. For Ashley’s class, this involved a combination of community and individual expectations. As a community, there needed to be a balance of voices—no one should dominate the conversation, and no one should contribute too little. Students were also expected to actively listen when not speaking, and respect others’ ideas—even if they diverged from their own. Individually, in order to meet the academic standards of the Harkness, students had to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned text, respond to others’ comments, ask follow up questions, and support their ideas with evidence from the text.


Over 25 minutes, the 7th graders explored character traits, themes, symbols, and topics such as identity, family and upbringing, relationships, and social environment. They responded directly to each other, taking turns to ask questions, expand on ideas, introduce new reasoning, and work through disagreements. During the active conversation, Ashley provided a helpful visual: a large circle with each students’ initials around it that tracked how conversation was flowing. As the discussion unfolded, she drew lines from person to person on the circle, illustrating who was interacting with whom and how often. Afterward, Ashley used this as a tool to reflect on the balance of voices during the conversation.

A key academic goal of Middle School at FCS is to apply appropriate levels of rigor while helping students feel capable and confident in developing and supporting their ideas. The Harkness method empowers students by increasing their agency, challenging them to take charge of their learning, and fostering critical thinking and public speaking skills that will serve them well beyond the classroom.