Socratic Seminar Thursday, March 1, 2012  Warsaw Central School

Workshop Goals Topic Socratic Seminar: An all in one instructional strategy. Goals To understand the components of Socratic Seminar and how to scaffold these components based upon the grade level you teach. To understand how Socratic Seminar is aligned with The Common Core Learning Standards.

Agenda Workshop Objectives Pre-assessment The Common Core Connection What is Socratic Seminar? The Overview Establishing Student Expectations Conducting the Seminar: Video Sample Assessing Effectiveness

You’re looking for what? Constructivism Cognitive Engagement 21 st Century Learning Skills

Socratic Seminar The Overview “Socratic Seminar is a formal discussion, based on a text, in which the leader asks open-ended questions. Within the context of the discussion, students listen closely to the comments of others, thinking critically for themselves, and articulate their own thoughts and their responses to the thoughts of others. They learn to work cooperatively and to question intelligently and civilly.” Israel, Elfie. “Examining Multiple Perspectives in Literature.”

Socratic Seminar The Overview Choosing a Text Socratic Seminars work best with authentic texts that invite authentic inquiry – an ambiguous and appealing short story, a pair of contrasting primary documents in social studies or an article on a controversial approach to an ongoing scientific problem.

Socratic Seminar The Overview Preparing the students Students need to know how to annotate text. Expectations for student behaviors during Socratic Seminar need to have been explicitly taught and practiced. These behaviors form the basis of the difference between dialogue and discussion/debate. Active ListeningCommenting/Growing Ideas Asking QuestionsInviting Others to Join -

Socratic Seminar The Overview Preparing the Questions In the beginning, the teacher fills the role of discussion leader and generates as many open-ended questions as possible, aiming for questions whose value lies in their exploration, not their answer.

Socratic Seminar The Overview Role of the Teacher Initially, the teacher is responsible for developing the open-ended questions for discussion. Additionally the teacher’s role is not to become involved in the discussion itself, but rather facilitate the discussion with reminders about procedure as well as clarify or sustain questions if necessary. Teachers need to learn to rely on the students to challenge each other.

Conducting the Seminar Middle School Socratic Seminar High School Socratic Seminar

Discussion What did you observe in the video example(s) that “stuck” with you? How can you make this strategy part of your classroom? content? instructional repertoire?

Assessing the Seminar Teacher Tools Scorekeeper Mapmaking Scorecard Student Tools Self Reflection Rubric Scoring

Resources on the Web tic+seminar&old_q=&srchgo.x=18&srchgo.y=5http:// tic+seminar&old_q=&srchgo.x=18&srchgo.y=5