Socratic Seminar | Close Reading Student Generated HOT Questions
Socratic Seminars promote higher order thinking, deepen understanding, and the ability to participate full in academic dialogue, use evidence, generate questions, and build on one another’s
thinking.
THE LAST STRAW | SOCRATIC SEMINAR
Purpose This seminar
was created to help students understand the deeper meaning of a text through student
generated questions, especially how meaning and understanding can change through
Socratic dialogue. Students are asked to read with a goal of generating questions
for deeper understanding as part of a jigsaw reading activity. New information will be constructed and
supported by sharing and listening to other student’s ideas. The peers listen
and are encouraged to change his or then her perspective, adding to understanding
or abandoning their original ideas without criticism or judgment. This engagement
protocol is particularly helpful when students find it difficult to understand complex
reading materials.
Procedure
1. The teacher or students make up cooperative groups by selecting
a time keeper “organizer”, a ”boss” facilitator, sage and scribe. Strips of
paper “Straws” are given to each student to write text based questions.
2. All students read the same text, or individuals may read
various texts (differentiation) on a common theme or topic for a jigsaw activity.
Text selection is a critical step that is best done using a syntopical approach.
Syntopical is a type of text analysis in
which different works are compared and contrasted.
3. Students read aloud with buddy and cooperatively complete
a Cornell notes form that records questions, ideas, themes, and opinions.
Recorded information should be based on lesson goals, anticipatory sets and or
desired learning outcomes. They mark, rank, annotate passages for discussion,
clearly labeling them to quickly locate later. Each student must write one
question based on the reading that will be discussed later. To promote HOT thinking,
design prompts and anticipatory sets that easily drive discussions. Ask students
to incorporate their own questions generated from the text, “What are your reasons
for selecting a particular passage” and “what is your evidence that supports your
point of view”, “why is that of particular importance?” After partners share
his or her opinions, thinking, similarities and differences in interpretations new
understanding will arise as other individuals share their thinking without
judgment or debate.
4. Students all grab one question straw, They take time restudying
the text using text evidence from the passage to answer the question, they must
give reasons why they selected the passage to answer.
5. Each peer discuses his or her question
“straw”, students responds with a quick praise and then they
repeat and rephrases what was shared with a partner! Each peer shares in less
than 1 minute.
6. The boss gets the “last Straw”, sharing how his or her
thinking evolved after listening to others or re-emphasizing what was
originally shared.
7. Student debrief:
Students discuss how hearing from others impacted their thinking.
8. Teacher debrief:
What worked in our discussion? What were
some challenges? How can we improve next time?
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