What are your thoughts toward socratic seminars? I'm a literary and intellectual junkie. Please don't mistake that declaration for a self-proclamation of my own intellect. I just thoroughly enjoy being immersed in intellectual discussion surrounding literature. Hence, I love socratic seminars. I've accepted this puts me in a small crowd, but hey, I like this crowd.
I should say I love socratic seminars when I am a student. Not so much when I'm the teacher and, therefore, the facilitator. I get overwhelmed; tracking responses, grading participation, posing discussion questions, anxiety toward lulls, fear of constant redirecting...it gets to be too much!
Does my overwhelmed sensation stem from over thinking? After Sally's use of socratic seminar when looking through "On Studies" by Sir Francis Bacon, I realize the greatness of such a tool stems from its simplicity. The "work" shouldn't rest on me, but rather the group's thinking.
My love for socratic seminars has been rejuvenated, on both ends of the spectrum: student and teacher.
So...now I ask...for what "big ideas" or texts have you used the socratic seminar in your class? Do you require prior preparation? What type of follow-up activities do you require?
Am I over thinking again?! Ah! Okay...I'm done. YOU speak....
I use Socratic Seminar a lot. This usually follows an assigned reading where I require students to annotate. That way, they can better support they sharing with quotes from the text. One thing I do for easier grading is to give each student 4 pennies. The have to turn ovens penny each time they speak. All four = A and so forth. This also ensures the same student isn't talking the entire time. I also do partner grading--see me if interested
ReplyDeleteKim, I love Socratic Seminars, as well, but I understand your frustration at being the "facilitator." One strategy that I use frequently is to have a fishbowl discussion, where about five to eight students (depending on class size) sit in the middle of a larger circle of desks. Only the students in the center are allowed to speak; everyone else has to write their thoughts and questions in their Daybooks. When the conversation reaches a lull, I pause and allow students watching from the outside to "tap out" a peer who has contributed to the discussion. This allows the students to continuously be engaged while taking the pressure off of me to make sure that everyone is participating.
ReplyDeleteI almost always assign reading ahead of time, even when I was co-teaching. We created seminar questions based on some cross-disciplinary theme/topic (e.g. World History and English I - the role of propaganda & literature in sparking the American revolution).
Hey Kim,
ReplyDeleteI love Socratic seminars too! I think you are in a great group ;) I agree that the teacher end is not as "fun" either. Because I always want to join in rather than simply listening!
I use them in my classroom with my 6th graders after studying a text. My students really like to do them almost as a "culminating" activity. After reading the text multiple times, working on vocabulary studies, and after a couple graphic organizers, my students love talking about their thoughts and ideas. They always love to participate and I rarely have issues with students not talking...more or less that they won't stop (and that's what we are going for right?!) :)
I've used them to discuss characterization. First a student describes their character, then if a student can relate in personality, demographic, appearance, etc they respond. I tried it as experimentation. I told the students they needed to ask questions about each others characters as well. This kept the ball rolling. Many students challenged each other, but in an polite way. They knew they were in a socratic seminar and showed respect, rather than having an open discussion and they are interrupting each other.
ReplyDeleteKim, I can't offer you any new ideas; but I love the fact that by participating yesterday, you got a renew feeling for the seminar. Isn't it crazy how we complicate things by overthinking...sometimes we just need that step back to see the forest through the trees! :)
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