Socratic seminar focuses on deep discussion around a central text, so it is. Oct 15, 2014 socratic seminar teacher observations. Framingham public library, at the framingham middle school libraries, and at area book stores. Socratic circles is a complete and practical guide to socratic seminars for the busy classroom teacher. Socratic seminars can help middle school students learn how to use effective. The comments often refer to the text for support but at least half the time there is a mismatch or. This lesson will provide three rubrics for assessing seminar participation. Many students benefit from talking through their ideas before they write. Socratic seminar rubric exemplary proficient partially proficient developing comments analysis and reasoning clearly references text to support reasoning.
Elements of poetry graphic organizer for upper elementary and middle school junior high studentsone of my first tpt products. The leon county school district does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, sex including transgender. Socratic seminar flipbook and editable handouts tpt. You will lose points if you are talking while others are trying to score points. Socratic seminar template and samples generic template a. 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. Also, consider adapting questions from the book talk project for class novel. Socratic seminar is one of many effective teaching strategies avid uses. Students then use the strategy to develop questions for a peerled book discussion.
Emoji stems another fun way to get students talking is to make accountable talking a little more fun by adding in emojis. This book is detailed in the purpose of socratic seminar, why its important, the roles of the innerouter circles, the teachers role, and different activities which begin to scaffold students for a socratic seminar. How to liven up your socratic seminar building book love. For instance, have them find 3 questions that will generate discussion, 2 insights about, setting, characters, etc and 1 important line from the chapter. Sep 02, 2016 the socratic seminar is one of the best teaching techniques for engaging students in critical thinking and meaningful discussion of a text. Students are expected to articulate their own thoughts as well as listen and respond to others in the the group. Socratic seminar sentence framessentence starters this is helpful for showing how to conduct a socratic seminar with middle school studentsthe purpose of these printable discussion cards is to encourage students to talk to one another using academic language. In the socratic seminar, participants seek deeper understanding of complex ideas. Tweaking a socratic seminar strategy for the middle grades. Stephen danielss 8th grade avid class discusses i have a dream in a socratic seminar.
Total points 20 points possible in each section 100 number of comments how often did you speak. Then you can start reading kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer no kindle device required. Socratic seminar rubric text preparationreading and annotation of text engagementparticipation in discussion and ontask use of textsupport of ideas with text. Demonstrates exceptionally logical and organized thinking. Socratic seminars in the middle by middleweb published 072920 this howto article about socratic seminaring is adapted from a chapter in sarah tantillos 2012 book the literacy cookbook. In a socratic seminar activity, students help one another understand the ideas. Im a 10th grade teacher at the high school for arts, imagination, and inquiry, and i like to use the socratic seminar to help students understand how they can develop claims and counterclaims, and address these in spoken argument. The comments often refer to the text for support but at least half the time there is a mismatch or the text is obvious. Jamison fort, who teaches 6thgrade social studies at maxson middle school in plainfield, nj, videotaped his students conducting a socratic seminar and the subsequent debrief. Middle school students are still learning the art of conversation, so when we as educators decide to have our class conduct a socratic seminar, we need to offer some structure to make sure that the debate offers a positive learning experience. Socratic seminars, the literacy cookbook, literacy, oral fluency, oral. Using socratic seminars in middle school by sarah tantillo.
The students discussed their thoughts on several questions regarding the book the class was asked to read, which was titled the outsiders. She used the seminar in her classes and was gracious enough to allow me to sit in on her classes as her students participated in socratic seminars. Teachers often use a checklist or a rubric that outlines the expectations of the socratic seminar. Then theres the secondary list of things youre going to do when you. Use a detailed rubric to score each of the discussants. Shackelfords amazing 8th graders participate in an epic socratic smackdown on the novel, the giver. A socratic seminar is a method to try to understand information by creating a dialectic class in regards to a specific text. Throughout my nine years as a high school language arts teacher, ive refined a pivotal strategy called the socratic seminar.
A practical guide to effective reading, writing, speaking, and listening instruction josseybass. In a seminar, participants question and examine issues and ideas related to a text, and articulate different pointsofview about these issues. During the seminar, some teachers reserve an empty hotseat for those in the outer circle who really. I created these emoji posters, task cards, and socratic seminar propsprompts to take a little of the formality out of circle time. Lets face itmost middle school students dont walk into our classrooms in august ready and able to participate in a socratic seminar or any type of academic discussion. You will prepare your thoughts on several different questions. Although this is designed for use in a high school classroom, its a great idea for organizing and tracking progress on goals or objectives for small groups or whole class.
He is the author of the habit of thought from socratic seminars to socratic practice. Socratic seminars are great ways to get students thinking deeply before a larger writing assignment. Socratic seminars are a great way to use higherlevel thinking skills and meet ccss for speaking and listening. Walker middle school socratic seminar jennifer madland. A socratic method for literary education, second edition, teaches parents and teachers how to understand and analyze literature using socratic questioning and discussion. Socratic seminar template and samples social studieshumanities sample a socratic seminar named after socrates is a deep discourse led by questioning. The comments express a mixture of original thinkingextensions and repeating others. The rubric for evaluating classroom discussions, as well as the socratic seminar fishbowl discussion partner evaluation could be used for this purpose. Resources for using rubrics in the middle grades edutopia. Socratic seminars work best with authentic texts that invite authentic inquiryan 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 preparing the students. When i began using this strategy, i used shorter texts or excerpts from a text.
This strategy guide explains socratic seminars and offers practical methods. Socratic seminar rubric socratic seminar, middle school teaching. How to prepare before beginning, all students should have read a common text. In this version of socratic seminar, students get advice during coaching pauses to improve the discussion. Socratic seminars in middle school and millions of other books are available for amazon kindle. This seminar consists of a book and a set of eight dvds. Demonstrates thoughtful consideration of the topic. Ppt socratic seminars powerpoint presentation free to. I finished the book in 23 days while only a few hours at a time. Take thoughtful, organized notes on the following topics for our socratic seminar. Heres what i did to make my socratic seminar different from a regular class discussion. In a socratic seminar, the participants carry the burden of responsibility for the. Enter your mobile number or email address below and well send you a link to download the free kindle app.
These are photos from a socratic seminar led by avidtrained honors english teacher amy rosewall at shakopee west junior high school. The easy way to do socratic seminars in your classroom. Socratic seminars illinois new teacher collaborative. Socratic seminar rubric for individual participants name. Guidelines for socratic dialogue socratic seminar question writing rules questioning cheat sheet inner circle guidelines and rubric outer circle guidelines and rubric socratic seminar reflection these same resources are also available as full page handouts in an editable word document. See more ideas about teaching strategies, middle school and teaching. Even if youre not doing an essay or a term paper, you can have students write a claimevidencereasoning paragraph based on one of the questions discussed in the.
Offers some analysis, but needs prompting from others. Jan 31, 2012 stephen danielss 8th grade avid class discusses i have a dream in a socratic seminar. A socratic seminar is method to try to understand information by creating a dialectic in class in regards to a specific text. Socratic seminar rubric i use this rubric to grade small group discussions called socratic seminars. Socratic seminar grading rubric nogales unified district. Socrates believed that enabling students to think for themselves was more important than filling their heads with right answers. Provides solid analysis, without prompting, to move the conversation forward. Teaching english literature using a socratic seminar. The purpose of a socratic seminar is to achieve a deeper understanding about the ideas and values in a text. This process encourages divergent thinking rather than. Students created their own questions, scoring criteria, engaged in. The socratic seminar, or socratic circle method, is based on this style of teaching, and it can be an extremely effective strategy for classroom learning. Students are required to support every statement with sound reasoning and appropriate examples. Provides relevant and insightful comments, makes new connections.
Customize the discussion questions and guided notes organizers as needed, but the rubric. Apr 28, 2014 this socratic seminar rubric from kipp king high school includes standards of performance for inner circle and outer circle participants. Intended for high school but could also work for younger kids. Theres the list of things that actually have to get done. Ive had several debates over the years, some much better than others. A socratic seminar is a strategy that seeks to read deeply into a text by creating a dialogue among the participants resulting in an understanding of the use of language or the development of themes in the text.
I purchased the book because i had only seen socratic seminar in a college setting. You will engage in one as an assessment over postmodernism and the information age. Socratic seminars are a teaching tool that empowers students and can turn up the thought level around any topic. Introduce this socratic seminar flip book to your students and watch their next discussion soar. This process encourages divergent thinking rather than convergent. The socratic seminar is a formal discussion, based on a text, in which the leader asks openended questions.
Make sure to take a clear, welldefined, and wellsupported stance in each response. In a socratic seminar, participants seek deeper understanding complex ideas in the text through rigorously thoughtful dialogue. If you have never done a socratic seminar activity with your students before, you might spend a few moments brainstorming the qualities that would make for a great seminar. Sarah tweaks her socratic seminar recipe by middleweb published 06232015 sarah tantillo extends her wildly popular 20 middleweb post, socratic seminars in the middle, with a variation suggested by middle school social studies teacher jamison fort. Bring notes and bookmarked pages that are relevant to the discussion. Shackelfords awesome 8th graders socratic seminar on. You may connect personal experiences, hypothetical scenarios, and other firsthand accounts to justify your response. Then you can start reading kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer. Socratic seminars in middle school texts and films that. I develop four sets of themebased, philosophical questions for the novel, poem, or short story and divide up the students in the class into the four groups.
Socratic seminar cross content resource socratic seminar lesson slide deck socratic seminar bookmarks routine posters socratic seminar 11x17 poster socratic seminar 8. Socratic seminar scoring guide rubric editable teaching. In classes of more than fifteen students, the fishbowl format for socratic seminars should be used. See more ideas about middle school english, middle school reading and middle school literature. He is currently completing a manuscript, whole lives the creation of conscious culture through educational innovation. You will be responsible for creating four openended questions to ask of the group based on your book. Socratic seminar teacher observations summary is designed as a guide to enable a teacher to quickly document individual student performance on key parameters and summarize whole class performance. Also, consider adapting the questions from the free book talk project for. Socratic seminar guidelines before the socratic seminar read and prepare your text before the seminar using the critical reading process. In a socratic seminar, participants seek deeper understanding of complex ideas in the text through rigorously thoughtful dialogue, rather than by memorizing bits of information. We also gratefully acknowledge the influence of the coalition of essential schools and the national paideia center. For more about how kipp king encourages the development of criticalthinking skills, see edutopia s coverage in the kipp king collegiate high school story.
Texts and films that engage students in reflective thinking and close reading. This socratic seminar rubric from kipp king high school includes. Making the leap to socratic seminars education week teacher. While students should read carefully and prepare well for every class session, it is usually best. Instead of giving students worksheets or guiding questions, have them fill out a 321 socratic seminar preparedness guide. When students feel comfortable, they are more willing to open up and let their ideas flow. A rubric for evaluating a socratic seminar discussion is provided in the. How to run a socratic seminar as a teaching methodology. Halfway through the book, i began wondering why i would need the dvds. Socratic seminar helpful documents socratic seminar. What i particularly like about these examples is that jamison took my approach and made it better. Socratic seminars require assessment that respects.
Students created their own questions, scoring criteria, engaged in a collegial discussion. These qualities or criteria can be explained on a rubric and used to evaluate the seminar at the end of the class period. How to stage socratic seminars in middle school middleweb. The student makes a few comments during the seminar 23. Instead, they require students to work toward understanding, together. Sep 30, 2016 heres what i did to make my socratic seminar different from a regular class discussion. Socratic seminars in the middle school social studies. Apr 23, 2020 ideas, strategies, and implementing socratic seminars in upper elementary and middle school english language arts classrooms. The texts are intended to be used during the discussion. Texts and films that engage students in reflective thinking and close reading moeller, victor, moeller, marc on. A socratic seminar is a scholarly discussion of an essential question in which student opinions are shared, proven, refuted, and refined through dialogue with other students. Read and prepare your text before the seminar using the critical reading process.
Socratic seminar is a teaching strategy that i used in my middle and high school literature and history classes. Socratic seminar assessments, preparations, rubrics, and anchor charts to facilitate successful socratic seminars. Here are the general guidelines for participating in a socratic seminar and a rubric that will be used to assess your participation. The leon county school district does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, sex including transgender, gender nonconforming, and gender identity, marital status, disability, pregnancy, sexual orientation, or genetic information. Are you thinking about holding a socratic seminar in your classroom. This type of studentled discussion based on socrates method of student inquiry rather than teacher lecture elicits student ownership, deep thinking, critical questioning pdf, academic vocabulary usage, and a rooted sense of community. Generally the socratic method is used in upper elementary, middle school, and high school.
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