Socratic Seminar

Socratic Seminar Generating insightful Statements and Questions

What makes a good statement? • It should be insightful. • It should make a point. • It should reference the text. • It shouldn't just state a simple fact.

Examples and Non-Examples of Insightful Statements • Non-Example: • “Revolver is set in Alaska.” • Example: • “Setting Revolver in Alaska lets the author explore the dangers of living in an isolated area.”

Examples and Non-Examples of Insightful Statements • Non-Example: • “Ralph is the protagonist in my book.” • Example: • “You can tell my protagonist, Ralph, is angry because of the way he always yells at his brother.”

Focus for the week: • Character, Conflict, and Setting • IDEAS FOR COMMENTS: • Explain how the concepts influence one another (“Conflict influences character because…” or “Setting changes the conflict when…”) • Describe how the author reveals/describes the element (“My author reveals the protagonist’s character by…”)

What Makes a good question? • It should be based on the text. • It should require someone to describe or explain something. • It shouldn’t be a yes or no question.

Examples and non-Examples of Insightful Questions Non-Example: “What was your favorite part of the book?” • Example: • “Why do you think your protagonist made the decisions he or she made?”

Focus on Character, Conflict, and Setting: • Use these sentence starters to generate at least three questions: • “How would you describe…?” • “What facts or ideas show…?” • “How wouldbe different if…?” • “What is the main idea of ……?” • “What examples can you find to…?” • “How is _______ related to . . . ?”

The End

Focus for Discussion 2:Connections • Text to Text • Compare your book to a Western Expansion article. • Text to Self • Compare your protagonist’s decisions to what you would do.

Which article could you use? • Revolver: “Vigilante Justice” • Hard Gold: “California Gold Rush” • Send One Angel Down: “The Emancipation Proclamation” • Black Storm Comin’: “The Pony Express”

Text to Text Connections:Statements • Non-Example: • “Hard Gold and the article “Background on The California Gold Rush” both show that moving out West wasn’t easy.” • Example: • “In Hard Gold as well as in the article “Background on California Gold Rush” the journey west is shown to be incredibly difficult. This is shown in my book when the people on Early’s wagon train argue about when to stop for supplies.”

Text to Text Connections:Questions • Non-Example: • “Which article did you use?” • Example: • “How does your book show what actually happened during Western Expansion?”

What kind of topics could you talk about? • Historical Accuracy: Explain/question why your book is or is not accurate, according to the article and how this influences your book. • If your book isn’t historically accurate, why would the author choose to change this fact? • If your book is accurate, how does the truth shape events in your book? How is it portrayed in your book?

Text to Self Connections:Statements • Non-Example: • “I’ve never had to take care of my whole family like Colton does.” • Example: • “When Colton got shot by his dad, he didn’t give up and took on even more responsibility to support his family. In his shoes, I wouldn’t have been able to keep going and stay strong the way he did.”

Text to Self Connections:Questions • Non-Example: • “Have you ever been out West?” • Example: • “What would you have done differently than your protagonist when faced with the conflict?”

What Kind of Topics can you talk about? • Questions: • “Would you have… like my protagonist did? Why or why not?” • “If you had to… like my protagonist, what would you do?” • Statements: • “I would also…” • “When my protagonist did… I would have…” • “I would never… the way my protagonist did.”

The End

This week’s Focus • What does the author want you to take away from your book?

Insightful StatementsBased on #3: “What themes or lessons relate to today?” • Non-Example: • “Early learns that doing the right thing is difficult. Today, everyone has difficulties they must face.” • Example: • “In Hard Gold Early learns that standing up for what you believe in is worth it when he decides to risk everything to save his family’s farm and find his cousin, Jesse. Today, we also have people telling us not to do the right thing like when we give in to peer pressure. Sometimes we also have to stand up for what we believe like Early did.”

Insightful QuestionsBased on #6: Relate conflicts from book to today • Non-Example: • “Are the conflicts in Revolver similar to conflicts you see in your life?” • Example: • “How does the confrontation between Sig and Wolff over a debt in Revolver relate to a problem you have in your own life?”

What does the author want you to take away from your book? • Questions: • Why did the author choose tothe historical fact that ? • What from your book shows about today? • What does show about today’s ?” • What does your character’s point of view on say about the author’s purpose for writing the book? • Statements: • The protagonist’s perspective onshows about this time period. • The author did/didn’t change the historical fact that because . • In my book, happens and this relates to today because . • My author chose to because that showsabout today. • The in my book is similar to today’s .

Socratic Seminar