Socratic seminar

How to facilitate successful Socratic Seminars in the secondary ELA

Liven up your next Socratic Seminar with these fun games and strategies to get students talking about ANY text!

Socratic seminars have been on my secondary list for years. They just seemed so daunting. Here's how I learned to conquer them (and love them).

Anytime you may be speaking on a particular subject, you have to assume the audience is unaware of the details. It is up to you to explain those details in an unique and personal way. ​ When...

The Socratic style of discourse lends itself quite well to establishing critical thinkers due to the fact that Socrates believed that enabling students to think for themselves was more important than filling their heads with knowledge. With so much talk about the Common Core standards and truly increasing our student's argumentative powers and critical thinking skills, I decided to launch a Socratic Seminar style of instruction in my sixth grade classroom this week. Our Seminar The Text My…

As teachers, we’re constantly being told to implement 21st Century Skills and the "4Cs" (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity). However, beyond that, we frequently aren’t sure where to begin. I use Socratic Seminars in my 7th Grade classroom to accomplish these skills.

If you are looking for a way of fostering a class discussion in the spirit of Socrates, this article can help! Open-ended questioning has a way of getting the creative juices flowing and everyone involved engaged. Read on to learn more about this effective classroom method.

Socratic Seminar Observation Checklist - How to create a Socratic Seminar Observation Checklist? Download this Socratic Seminar Observation Checklist template now!

Want to learn how discussion can enrich learning? Get an easy-to-follow breakdown of the Socratic seminar definition and components here...

(Grid adapted from pablo_75 on TES)Questioning is the key means by which teachers find out what pupils already know, identify gaps in knowledge and understanding and scaffold the development of their understanding to enable them to close the gap between what they currently know and the learning goals.Questions are the most common form of interaction between pupils and teachers, yet research suggests that the majority are recall and comprehension - lower-order questions which do not require…