Socratic Seminars

The Vision

•Socrates believed that enabling students to think for themselves was more important than filling their heads with “right answers.”

The Vision

• Participants seek deeper understanding of complex ideas through rigorously thoughtful dialogue & discussion, rather than by memorizing bits of information.

Discussion & Dialogue

• Discussion in the dictionary is "a close examination of a subject with interchange of opinions, sometimes using argument, in an effort to reach an agreement.

Discussion & Dialogue

• Dialogue is "an interchange of ideas especially when open and frank and seeking mutual understanding."

• It is a collective inquiry in which we suspend opinions, share openly, and think creatively about difficult issues.

Effective groups need to use both dialogue and discussion

Dialogue is NOT Debate!

Debate vs. dialogue

The TEXT

Our text for today is Myths & Truths about Rigor by Robyn Jackson

• Number the paragraphs (do not number the intros at the tops of each page)• “We often…” is #1• “ Rigorous thinking is involved in…” is #13• “There is no absolute value for rigor.” is #25

• Read the article, including the intros on each page• Circle important vocabulary• Underline main ideas• Use ! by A-Ha statements and a ? by statements you would like to learn more about

What are Socratic Seminars?

•Usually range from 30-50 minutes• An effective Socratic Seminar creates dialogue as opposed to debate.

Dialogue is NOT Debate!

Four Elements

An effective seminar consists of four interdependent elements:

1. the text being considered2. the questions raised3. the seminar leader, and4. the participants

The Participants

•Share responsibility for the quality of the seminar.

•Most effective when participants: –study the text closely in advance

–listen actively

The Participants

•Most effective when participants: –share their ideas and questions in response to others

–search for evidence in the text to support their ideas

The TEXT

Our text for today is Myths & Truths about Rigor by Robyn Jackson.

Please revisit and review the notes you made while reading this article

yesterday.

Tips

• Respond to the opening question• Examine the text to support your answer

•“I agree with… but would like to add…”

•“I disagree with…because…”•“I am confused by…”

Thoughtfuldialogue

“Wingman Formation”

Inner Circle are speakers, referring to the text in their dialogue. This seat is rotated so that everyone gets a chance to speak.

Outer Circle are wingmen, supporting their speaker with ideas passed up on stickies or index cards. OC does not speak.

The Question

An opening question has no right answer

• For this initial seminar, we will begin with the leader’s question.

Question: Does rigor align with the goals of LEAD 2021? Why or

why not?(Think about differentiation,

learning platform, best practices, etc.)

Debrief

• Debrief the topic• “If you have changed your mind about a particular point or issue, what made you change it????”

• Debrief the PROCESS• What seminar guidelines were observed?• What social skills did the group exhibit?

• What might the group goal be for the NEXT seminar?

• Socratic Seminar at HMS

MATH EXAMPLE

MATH EXAMPLE

Extensions & modifications

• Depending on the needs of your classes, you may want to consider:• Allowing students to generate and pose their own questions

• Structuring time for triads to discuss other questions posed during the seminar

• Running multiple, student-led seminars at a time

• Printing sentence stems for ELLs• Strategically grouping students in triads and/or determining the first inner circle

• “My two cents”

Content Socratic Seminar

• Discuss with your PLC how this could be used in your classrooms