Enjoy!
I love Socratic Seminars! It is one of the only times during the year where students take 100% control of the class that day. Usually, lessons tend to be somewhere around 70/30, but Socratic Seminars are 100% student-led. In my classroom, we do Socratic Seminars at three points during the year. Each one builds on the skills learned from the previous one:
- First Socratic Seminar: Students focus primarily on asking and answering high-level questions. Before the seminar, we spend time talking about the difference between low-level questions and high-level questions and students practice creating those high-level questions (see the link at the bottom for the resources I use).
- Second Socratic Seminar: Students continue to focus on asking and answering high-level questions but also focus on using textual evidence to support their responses. Before the seminar, we spend time talking about close reading and finding the best evidence from a text to support their opinions and responses.
- Third Socratic Seminar: Students continue to focus on asking and answering high-level questions and using textual evidence but also focus on making meaningful text connections that strengthen their discussions even more (see the link at the bottom for examples).
Doing a Socratic Seminar for the first time can be overwhelming for both the students and teacher. It takes a lot of patience for a teacher to give up control to the students. And, it takes a while for the students to feel comfortable running things themselves. But, I found it to be very worthwhile when they do. Here is a brief overview of how my seminars run on the day, and you can find more detailed information in the link at the bottom:
- First, students sit in either the inner circle or outer circle of desks. The inner circle (the ones actually discussing out loud) get out their books, notes, and other materials. The outer circle (the ones participating in an online backchannel) get logged in to the backchannel that I use most often (todaysmeet.com).
- While students are given a couple minutes to look over their notes and prepare, I get my rubrics and score sheets ready to go. I also remind the outer circle what they should be chatting about in the backchannel (what the inner circle is doing well, what advice they have for them, and whether they agree or disagree with the topics brought up in the discussion).
- After that, I sit back and just listen. The students run the discussion, and I take notes on my scoresheets to make sure students get the grades they deserve. At a couple points in the hour, we will take a quick break so the inner circle can turn to the outer circle and get advice or suggestions from them (based on what was discussed in the backchannel).
- The next day, the inner circle and outer circles switch.
For a much more detailed description of how I run my Socratic Seminars (and links to all of my resources and other materials), please CLICK HERE. And, feel free to let me know if any of you have any questions regarding Socratic Seminars or would like some help putting one together!
Heidi K (Formerly Vandy)
