I have read many an article on Socratic Seminars, watched videos of how successful they can be and I have even had discussions or fish bowl talks that are similar to Socratic Seminars. But, I really wanted to have one that followed all the guidelines and rules of a true version. While at CAST in San Antonio last month I decided to attend a course and see if they are feasible and worthwhile. Instead of having us talk about them we actually had one, actually there were so many of us in the class that we needed two to be happening simultaneously. This seems out of reach but actually many of my classes are large and when I conducted my Edcamp we had three happening simultaneously and at first it was noisy, but they did settle into it and it ended up being very rewarding.
Guidelines and rules check. Organization and format check. Now for a topic. Rather than having a quick one on the last three body systems, no time, and unnecessary, I thought about it a lot and decided to have a longer one during the hour and a half finals period this way they can really get into it and have time to reflect after. Also, this will allow for a deeper conversation and provide time for research and student choice. I really want my first Socratic Seminar to be engaging and student driven. In order for this to happen they need to conduct research and design the topic themselves. all I need to do is focus them a little.
On the board I wrote three sentences: Why is it important for all the body systems to work together? What happens to the human body when one of these systems fails? How can modern medicine help when our bodies do not function properly? I asked for students to choose which of these topics was the most interesting to them. the numbers in each group varies per class. But there were several students in each group. The next step was to open them up to research. I asked them to write in their journal three topics they would like to discuss about their chosen "question." Then I said choose one and research an interesting topic that falls under that category. I advised them to find two articles about the topic (peer reviewed for my GT) and for my Academic classes any article from a list of websites including Ducksters, Science for Kids etc.
Today students brought in their articles and during our 1-minute check-in's I asked them about their article and what struck them about the topic. This weekend they are to highlight interesting quotes, and ideas they could use to discuss the topic. This will take some time but we have two weeks until the seminar. I will write another post soon to update you on our progress and I will definitely write one about the outcome of this first every, Socratic seminar in my classroom. I am excited, a bit nervous, but I know even if it fails miserably that students will learn from it. That is what a classroom is all about-taking risks and learning.
No comments:
Post a Comment