You might already know this, but I am a huge fan of the Socratic seminar. I haven't been able to fit them into my teaching schedule until recently this semester. I just had to let everyone know how GREAT it ALWAYS turns out! I love just sitting back and letting my students discuss the literature on their own terms. It's hard for me to keep my mouth shut sometimes, but I really think it's important that the students for talk with each other, rather than just answer my questions. I am always amazed after a Socratic seminar in my classroom. I found that what works best with my 10th graders is to give them a little time in class to prepare for the upcoming seminar. I usually give them a sheet with quotes, or short passages from the text we are reading. This week, we finished Huck Finn so I prompted them with some open-ended discussion questions on a worksheet, and I also highlighted a few excerpts from the text. I found that they need something to get them started, and these open-ended discussion questions work really well for that. I give the students points for participation, but I also give a few points to the students who don't participate if they can show me that they took useful notes during the discussion. Soon, though, I will require that everyone participates if they want the points. They are still getting used to it. Last semester, I had a great deal of success using the Socratic seminar in the classroom; it has been equally rewarding this semester as well. Today, the students were discussing timeless themes in Huck Finn and connecting them to real world issues-- all on their own. It was amazing-- one of those really proud teaching moments :)
Has anyone done anything like this? I know there are different ways of holding Socratic seminars in the classroom. I put 5 seats at the front of the room and let the students walk in and out of the conversation when they want. It has worked really well so far. I do facilitate the discussions, but I try my best to stay out of them and just let them talk, but I do interject at times.
I have one planned for Wednesday and am really excited to see how the students do. They love when we have discussions, but I'm hoping those students who don't usually speak up will feel comfortable enough to jump into the conversation.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of open-ended questions to get the students started, but I'm hoping this will spark some thinking on their end that that they'll come up with questions throughout the activity. I didn't think of having them take notes, so I might borrow that idea from you!
I'm going to set up the room so the chairs are in two circles: 5 in the middle and the rest surrounding the middle seats. The idea is to give students the option to "tap in" when they want to jump into the conversation, but with 6th graders I have no idea what to expect!
Let me know how it goes! Good luck :)
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