1. Leading the Socratic Seminar
Presented by Martha Lamb
Catawba County Schools
August 13, 2009

2. Objectives You will . . . be able to write effective seminar questions
learn how to prepare students to interact effectively during a seminar
develop basic skills for leading a Socratic Seminar
be familiar with strategies for evaluating student participation in seminars

3. What is the Socratic Seminar?
A Socratic seminar is a structured discussion of a specific text based upon the questioning techniques used by Socrates in his teaching.

4. Benefits of the Socratic Seminar
Promotes close and critical reading of texts
Teaches respect for diverse ideas
Creates a positive learning environment for all students.
Provides a forum for students to practice taking and supporting a stance

5. Benefits of the Socratic Seminar (continued)
Creates a community of inquiry
Affords quality time to engage in in-depth discussion, problem-solving, and clarification of one’s ideas
Builds a strong, collaborative work culture.
Places the student in the center of learning as an active and engaged participant

6. Dialogue, Not Debate Dialogue Debate Collaborative
Listen to find common ground
Reveals assumptions for evaluation
Creates open-minded attitude
Respects all participants
Assumes that many people have pieces of answers
Remains open-ended
Oppositional
Listen to find flaws in argument
Defends assumptions as truth
Creates closed-minded attitude
May belittle other participants
Assumes a single right answer
Demands a conclusion

7. Taxonomies of Questions
Great Books Foundation Levels of Questions:
Factual
Interpretive
Evaluative
Costa’s Levels
of Inquiry:
Level 3 - apply, evaluate, hypothesize, judge, predict, speculate
Level 2 - analyze, compare, contrast, group, infer, sequence, synthesize
Level 1 - define, describe, identify, list, name, observe, recite, scan
Use to build
comprehension
of a difficult
text
Use to
interpret
a perplexing
text
See handout.

8. Crafting Questions for Seminar
Utilize a taxonomy (Costa’s works well)
Prepare questions from each level
Focus on the higher-level questions in your seminar
Try to remove bias from your questions that might lead the discussion in a particular direction
Write questions that require close examination of the text in order to answer

9. Practice Writing Questions
With a partner, write two questions at each of Costa’s three levels for The Gettysburg Address.
Be prepared to share your questions with the group.

10. 1st Seminar: Gettysburg Address
Rules for Participation –
Be a good listener. The purpose of the seminar is to learn from each other by listening and discussing your ideas.
You do not have to be called on to speak. but only one person may speak at a time.
Refer to the text often to support your points or to raise additional questions.
Speak to each other, not to the leader. This is your discussion.
Do not use examples from other stories, books, movies, etc. to support your interpretation because all of the seminar members may not be familiar with those texts. Only use examples from the text.
On what battlefield was the audience assembled?
What does consecrate mean?
What challenge did Lincoln issue in this speech?
What effect do you think this speech had on the people in attendance?
How might this speech have been received if it had been delivered in a Confederate state?

11. Seminar Leader Behaviors
Ask questions in which you have a genuine interest
Refrain from offering your own opinion
Keep the discussion focused on the text
Ask follow-up questions
Ask participants to clarify their points
Seek to involve reluctant participants & restrain those who tend to monopolize the discussion
LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN!!!

12. Follow-Up Questions What in the text leads you to that conclusion?
What do you mean by ___________?
If what you say is so, then why did the author write ____________?
Where in the text did you find that?
Do you agree or disagree with the point that ___________ made?
How does that example support your point?

13. Marking the Text as Preparation
Always have students read the text two times before discussion:
1st time - to get the main idea; the gist
2nd time – to annotate the text

14. Marking the Text as Preparation
-Underline important or perplexing text
-Use codes: ! to mark surprising things
? to mark confusing things
* to mark important things
-Write comments & observations in the margins
**If students can’t mark up their text, give them sticky notes to use for their annotations
Use document camera to demonstrate marking the text

15. 2nd Seminar: My Spanish Standoff
Read the text through two times
On your second reading, mark the text with your thoughts; this will help you in discussion
Inner Circle/Outer Circle
Use to make a large group smaller & more manageable for a seminar
Assign students to outer circle if they have been absent or are otherwise unprepared for discussion
Always have outer circle share notes

16. How should seminar participation be assessed?
Self-assessment tool
Holistic Rubric
Analytic Rubric
Writing assignment as follow-up
Reflections posted on wiki
Others?

17. Prepare to Lead Mother to Son Third Seminar Read twice & mark text
Work with a partner to prepare questions
Who will lead?
Third Seminar

18. Revisit Objectives You will . . .
be able to write effective seminar questions
learn how to prepare students to interact effectively during a seminar
develop basic skills for leading a Socratic Seminar
be familiar with strategies for evaluating student participation in seminars

19. Don’t forget to evaluate this workshop in SchoolLink.