My favorite days of teaching are when I don’t have to do any of the work, and I can sit at my desk and just observe my students doing the hard work like with socratic seminars. One of the best ways to have an “easy” day in the classroom is to hold a Socratic Seminar.

Socratic Seminars add so much value to the classroom because they cause the students to show higher level thinking, evaluate literary elements, pull textual evidence, and analyze a text all while engaging in a discussion led by their peers. I love holding Socratic seminars in my Theme & Symbol unit to help my students understand that as they write their first literary analysis essay they already know how to analyze a text. By participating in the discussion and answering critical thinking questions, students are breaking down a text and finding the deeper meaning.

How to Set Up a Socratic Seminar

For my class, every time I set up a Socratic Seminar I take two days for the activity. The first day is a preparation day for the students and the second day is the actual discussion.

Socratic Seminar Day #1: Preparation Day

After reading a text in my class, I give my students time to discuss what they have read and give overall impressions of the text itself. We normally do this discussion in small groups to give everyone a chance to speak.

Students then work on their Socratic Seminar Prep handout in order to prepare for the discussion. We first as a class review the difference between critical thinking questions and responses and Level One (surface level) questions and answers. The prep paperwork has students brainstorm six critical thinking questions that relate to the broader ideas in the text. We focus a lot on theme subjects to help guide our thinking. As a class, we create two of these six questions together in order to understand what makes a critical thinking question.

After brainstorming the six critical thinking questions, students then are to answer each one of their questions and provide at least one piece of evidence for each response. The reason that they answer their own questions is to have some responses ready for tomorrow in case students struggle to think on their feet while in the middle of the discussion.

We also think together as a group about what discussion protocols we would like to have in place for our discussion. We list them on the board so that the students can see them tomorrow during our Socratic Seminar. Some of the highlights on the list are:

• Be an active listener
• Be respectful and do not interrupt
• Do not dominate the conversation
• Pull others into the conversation if needed
• Do not distract other students when not speaking

Socratic Seminar Day #2: Discussion Day

This day is always exciting and nerve-wracking for the students and does require coordination, patience, and organization to get everything in place. In preparation for this day I have the following items ready before class begins:

• Grouping Buttons: I have printed green and blue buttons that have numbers 1-15 on them that are laminated and cut so I can hand them to students as they enter the classroom.
• Discussion Protocols List: Have our list of discussion protocols on the whiteboard for the students to see
• Socratic Seminar Points System: Have a PowerPoint slide ready with the discussion points:
  • Provide a unique claim: +1
  • Agree with a classmate and explain: +1
  • Disagree with a classmate and explain” +1
  • Provide text evidence: +2
  • Provide a critical thinking question: +2
  • Connect to the real world and provide insight: +2
• Socratic Seminar Coaching Guide: Students have a document to guide them as they listen to the discussion. Each student is assigned a coach who sits behind them during the discussion. The coaching guide has the following elements:
  • Goal Setting
  • Round One Tracking Chart
  • Halftime Pep Talk Guidelines
  • Round Two Tracking Chart
  • Silent Observer: Students in the outer circle can write down their thoughts about the inner circle discussion without interrupting.
  • Debriefing Questions
• Socratic Seminar Scorecard: This handout is for the teacher to track students points during the discussion. There is a table with 15 rows for names and point tracking and 6 columns with the different point categories.

Socratic Seminar Discussion

Here is the process for the discussion:

1. Students receive a number button when they walk in
2. Students create two circles (Inner circle and outer circle) with the desks
3. All students with the blue buttons sit on the inside circle
4. All student with the green buttons sit in the outer circle behind their corresponding blue button number. The student with the matching number will be their coach for the discussion
5. Students in both the inner circle and outer circle turn to their coach and set two goals for the discussion today.
6. Review the discussion protocols and point system for the Socratic Seminar.
7. Set the timer for 10 minutes and allow the students to determine who will start the discussion.
8. Start the discussion and track points while students in the inner circle lead the discussion.
9. After 10 minutes, students stop the discussion and coaches from the outer circle share insights and suggestions for how their partner can approve in round two for two minutes.
10. Set the timer again for 10 minutes and allow the students to begin the discussion again.
11. After 10 minutes, switch groups and start the process all over again
12. At the end of both groups’ discussions, students complete the debrief section about their own performance and submit it to the teacher.

These discussions always lead to great insights and discussions on themes, literary elements, and connections to today’s world without me having to say a single word. Honestly, the students tend to do a better job on their own, and I get an “easy” day all because of socratic seminars.