Why do I love the Socratic Seminar? Let me count the ways!

• It’s a great way to get to know student personalities, especially at the beginning of the year.
• I get to see a different side of students than a classroom setting always allows for. Sense of humor, how students interact with each other . . . .
• It’s very good practice developing an argument and critical thinking skills,
• . . . and speaking skills,
• . . . and listening skills,
• . . . and basic conversation skills,
• . . . and even finding evidence on the fly.
• I love an on opportunity to watch these skills blossom with practice and confidence over the course of the year.
• It’s mostly graded in real time. Cue the heavenly choir.

Most of all, a good Socratic is about connection and sharing ideas you are willing to stake your reputation on in front of peers– human things, in other words.

Are you convinced? Hooray! There are as many ways to use the Socratic Seminar in the classroom as there are teachers who use them, but here is how I do it.

1. Before class starts, make two circles, an inside one and an outside one. Same number of chairs in each. Seats are first come first served as students filter in.
2. Inside circle talks first. Everyone is given the prompts to answer the night before as a starting place, but other than that the conversation is up to them.
3. I do not speak unless absolutely necessary. (Oh, and to give a two minute warning so everyone has a chance to wrap up the discussion at hand.)
4. Looking in the book for evidence is not only allowed, but encouraged.
5. Everyone must speak once. (Though every now and then a painfully shy student just can’t muster it, in which case I sometimes offer a one-on-one socratic after school. As a painfully shy student myself once, I’m sympathetic.)
6. While the inside circle talks, the outside circle takes notes, which are passed in with their homework notes. I like students to name the following four things to structure the response a little:
   • An idea they liked
   • An idea they disagreed with and why
   • An act of kindness they witnessed, however small
   • An idea that hadn’t occurred to them before now
7. After the Socratic, I give the outside circle a moment to celebrate favorite comments or moments before the two circles switch. The outside circle is now the inside circle; the former inside circle takes out paper to take notes in the outside circle.
8. Ideally each Socratic is about 15 minutes, though class duration time might dictate that number as well.

Here is the worksheet I usually hand out to students. This particular one is for Fahrenheit 451.

*I seem to have borrowed the explanation on my student worksheet from another source, but I have long since forgotten where it comes from. A Google search shows many other teachers using the same phrasing as well; it is beloved for a reason. If anyone knows where it originally came from, please let me know, because I would love to give credit where credit is due.