Our First Official Socratic Seminar

Monday, September 29th will be an exciting day in every Language Arts classroom at Julia Landon College Preparatory and Leadership Academy. The Language Arts classrooms will be participating in Socratic Seminars to discuss the summer reading assignments. I have no expectations other than pure excitement for this day because this will be the first time I will have held my own Socratic Seminar. In preparation for this day, I have instructed the students regarding my expectations for participation and advised them of the necessary materials to bring with them on Monday. I have also reminded them that this format may not seem so unfamiliar as we truly have a Socratic classroom learning environment.

The Socratic method of teaching is based on Socrates' theory that it is more important to enable students to think for themselves than to merely fill their heads with "right" answers. Therefore, he regularly engaged his pupils in dialogues by responding to their questions with questions, instead of answers. This process encourages divergent thinking rather than convergent.

Students are given opportunities to "examine" a common piece of text, whether it is in the form of a novel, poem, art print, or piece of music. After "reading" the common text," open-ended questions are posed. Open-ended questions allow students to think critically, analyze multiple meanings in text, and express ideas with clarity and confidence. After all, a certain degree of emotional safety is felt by participants when they understand that this format is based on dialogue and not discussion/debate.

Dialogue is exploratory and involves the suspension of biases and prejudices. Discussion/debate is a transfer of information designed to win an argument and bring closure. Americans are great at discussion/debate. We do not dialogue well. However, once teachers and students learn to dialogue, they find that the ability to ask meaningful questions that stimulate thoughtful interchanges of ideas is more important than "the answer."

Participants in a Socratic Seminar respond to one another with respect by carefully listening instead of interrupting. Students are encouraged to "paraphrase" essential elements of an other's ideas before responding, either in support of or in disagreement. Members of the dialogue look each other in the "eyes" and use each other names. This simple act of socialization reinforces appropriate behaviors and promotes team building.

My goal is to have another Socratic Seminar wherein every student will purchase a common book, read the book as part of their 25 book standard, then participate in a seminar discussing that reading.

Those students whom did not turn in the required summer reading essay may not participate in the seminar. They will be located in a separate part of the classroom with an in-class assignment that will be turned in for a grade. Students participating in the seminar will be graded for participation based on the Socratic Seminar Summer Reading Rubric.

A copy of the rubric is located on the Engrade calendar under September 29th. Click on the title and it will pull up the rubric!