Socratic Seminar Preparation

If you lost your Socratic Seminar materials...

If you are confused by something on your handouts...

If you just need some reassurance and clarification before our seminar on block day...

THIS IS THE POST FOR YOU!

This post contains everything we've done the past three days to prep for our Socratic Seminar on Wednesday, May 15th and Thursday, May 16th.

Below is one of the more important handouts. It was printed on yellow paper.

There are 5 types of questions on this handout:

• Level 1 Plot Questions - These questions are OPTIONAL. You should really only complete these two questions if  you literally didn't understand something about the book and you absolutely need clarification!
• Examples: What was the name of the mead hall that Beowulf was asked to defend?
• Analysis Questions - "Analysis" really just means breaking down a whole into parts and looking more closely at the parts. This is any kind of question that generates conversation (not just a simple question-answer interaction) between multiple individuals. It could be about a particular concept (Christian and pagan allusions in Beowulf), symbols (blood in Macbeth), or a part of the plot (Paul's untimely death in "Rocking Horse Winner"). Your general notes and reviews from throughout the year are a good place to start, but be sure you are asking a question that will generate a conversation, not just a simple recall answer. 
• Examples: Is Beowulf's form of heroism still desired or has it become outdated? What might have happened if Macbeth refused to kill Duncan? Do you believe that the love between Cecily and Algernon is true?
• "Light Conversation" Questions - These are the "gossip-y" type questions you ask as the seminar gets rolling and maybe begins wrapping up. They are not questions that require a huge depth of thought to answer, but you have to have read the book to be able to answer it. 
• Examples: Who do you think would make a better boyfriend: Marcus or Samm?
• Resource Questions - These are questions that cover the general overarching topics from your article. These are questions that could be answered by people who didn't read the same article as you. 
• Examples: Are we really prepared as a society to deal with an epidemic?
• Resource Connections - These are statements that show how your article connects to something else we have read this year.
• Examples: This article about the true reasons for why we lie and betray others reminded me of Macbeth. Maybe human nature was what caused him to betray Duncan, not just the witches' prophecy. 

Yes,  you must do the last two sections: My Favorite Parts and Other Smart Things I Can Talk About.

The only requirements for it to be smart are:

1. You are passionate about it
2. You can talk about it for at least 15 seconds

For each question, if it asks for an answer, YOU MUST GIVE ONE. It's okay if it's "wrong." The worst that will happen is someone will say "I disagree" during the seminar. 

You also need PAGE NUMBERS that give an example of what you are asking about or prove your answer. These page numbers aren't for me. They are for you! The less time you spend flipping through your book, the more time you have during the seminar to contribute and earn credit!

This is the tracking sheet we will use on block day. You don't have to do anything with it until the day of the seminar. 

Remember, students who are not prepared on block day will be given an alternative assignment that will take the entire class period to complete. 

Not sure what a Socratic Seminar is?

Well, in class, we watched part of a video that demonstrates a real Socratic Seminar! You can see it below. A few notes though:

• In the video, you'll see the kids have red cups on their desks. This is a tracking tool used by the teacher. We will not be using that. 
• These students are discussing gender roles as a pre-reading activity. They have not yet read the text and so most of their answers are references to their personal experiences. In our seminar, you should be referring to the book just as often as your own experiences. 
• The outer circle is interacting by providing feedback digitally. They are not just chilling on their phones.

Socratic Seminar - Article Analysis Activity

Below is the article analysis activity that you should complete to help supplement your prep packet for our Socratic seminar. The articles, unfortunately, are not available for download here due to copy right issues. You can select an article in class from the folders at the back of the classroom when you return to class.

TED Talk Assignment

Absent for our TED talk on Tuesday, May 7th or Wednesday, May 8th? Make sure you picked up the blue handout from class. If not, here is a copy of it below.



Then, view the TED talk below and complete the handout over the speaker's presentation.

Socratic Seminar and Levels of Questioning Practice and Information

Today in class, we introduced our final major in-class activity, the Socratic Seminar. A Socratic seminar is a group discussion that focuses on a specific idea or theme and builds through the use of analytical and deep-thinking questions. Below you can find a copy of the assignment packet for this activity.



We then began to discuss how to craft meaningful questions that would be of use during a Socratic Seminar. Some questions are more valuable than others because some questions give answers that are more valuable. Below is an information page regarding levels of questioning.



As you can see, there are three levels of questions: recall, analysis, and synthesis.

Level I: Recall questions are questions that can be answered directly from the text. They are questions the author explicitly or directly gives us the answer to. These questions do not take much thought to answer and usually only have one right answer. We do not have to draw conclusions or make inferences, because the text will say straight out what the answer is.

For example, 

What is the name of Kira's sister who becomes pregnant? 
Answer: Madison.

The author tells us that Madison is Kira's sister and that Madison is pregnant when Madison announces it to Kira.

Level II: Analysis questions are questions the author doesn't directly answer for us, but instead leaves clues that we put together to come up with an answer. These questions may take more thought because we have to prove our answer with text evidence and our interpretation of that evidence. Because we are interpreting the text to come up with an answer, there are a few possible correct answers to a Level II question depending on the reader's perspective.

A somewhat nonsensical level II question :)

For example,

What was Lady Macbeth's reason for killing herself in Macbeth?
Answer: Lady Macbeth killed herself because she was overwhelmed with guilt for participating in the murder of Duncan and it eventually drove her to believe that such a life was not worth it. Lady Macbeth expresses this when she says "What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?" (5.2.30-31) Lady Macbeth points out that she shouldn't feel bad for her actions because of the reward of power, but she is constantly reminded of her guilt despite it all.

OR

Answer: Lady Macbeth killed herself due to her mental instability, which she shows from the very beginning of the play when she openly expresses her desire to help her husband commit murder. Macbeth eventually stops caring about what Lady Macbeth does, which only makes her worse. Without her husband's care, Lady Macbeth begins to have hallucinations while sleep walking and the doctor mentions that "This disease is beyond my practice. yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds" (5.2.47-48). The doctor remarks that Lady Macbeth's condition isn't physical, but that something deeper is behind her sleep-walking. If we assume the doctor does not know what Lady Macbeth has done, he may assume her sleep-walking is being caused by some mental disturbance. 

The ultimate reason for Lady Macbeth's death is not communicated directly, but it can be inferred from her statements prior to her death and her behavior throughout the play.

Level III: Synthesis questions are questions that go BEYOND the text. These are questions that involve the thematic subjects and thematic statements of the text, but are questions that could also be answered by someone who has never read the text before. Answers to Level III questions can be used to further your understanding of the text as a whole, the value in reading it, or its application to the real world. Level III questions take the most thought to answer and there are many possible "correct" answers because they rely primarily on the reader's understanding of the thematic subjects rather than just the plot. Students should still use text evidence to connect to their answers for Level III questions to make a connection back to the text.

A wonderful example of a level III question!

For example,

How do you know if love is true?
Answer: Love is true when the people in the relationship are completely open and honest with one another. They should have expectations for how they are treated, but not for what kind of person their partner must be. If two people in love expect a big change from one another, the relationship most likely won't last. True love is also not just falling in love with the idea of someone. For instance, in The Importance of Being Earnest, the relationship that Algernon and Cecily have can't possibly be true love because Cecily only loves Algernon for what she thinks he is, not for who he truly is. For her to be in love with someone so selfish and flighty seems unlikely, especially since she seems to be a committed, yet naive person.

You may also use personal experiences to answer Level III questions, but you must still find some way to connect it back to the events, characters, symbols, or references within the text.

Below is the story we read aloud in class today. Below that are the example questions we came up with in each class.