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Leading the Socratic Seminar

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

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Leading the Socratic Seminar

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  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 textbased 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

  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

  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.

  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

  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 • 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.

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