Teaching the Socratic Method or Socratic Inquiry is integral to successful ELA CCSS teaching and transitioning to the new Common Core State Standards. Socratic Method | Socratic Inquiry (also known as method of elenchus, elenctic method, or Socratic debate), named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and discussion between individuals. The Socratic method or Socratic Inquiry is based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas. It is a dialectical
method, often involving a discussion in which the ideas or idea of a topic are questioned in a systematic or scientific path; one participant may lead another to find more meaning and discover new ways of thinking and questioning
himself in new ways, thus strengthening the inquirer's own knowledge and reasoning. Edited Wiki
Using Socratic Seminars and Socratic rubrics in your daily classroom discussions are a great tool to develop critical thinking at all grade levels!! You can quickly create Socratic seminar rubrics that query, rank, and probe literature in a syntopical wa. Example, how would you rank your least favorite characters in the story or how many character traits do you find objectionable or appealing? Go even deeper with questions of ethics and morals that underlie a piece legislation like the Monsanto GMO waivers. Using a base rubric with generic question stems is a good place to start and develop your own text or theme specific rubric. The list below is a collection of Socratic Seminar Rubrics!
Socratic Seminar [PDF] My favorite Rubric and Guide
Using Socratic Seminars and Socratic rubrics in your daily classroom discussions are a great tool to develop critical thinking at all grade levels!! You can quickly create Socratic seminar rubrics that query, rank, and probe literature in a syntopical wa. Example, how would you rank your least favorite characters in the story or how many character traits do you find objectionable or appealing? Go even deeper with questions of ethics and morals that underlie a piece legislation like the Monsanto GMO waivers. Using a base rubric with generic question stems is a good place to start and develop your own text or theme specific rubric. The list below is a collection of Socratic Seminar Rubrics!
Socratic Seminar [PDF] My favorite Rubric and Guide
The purpose of a Socratic Seminar is to achieve a deeper understanding about the ideas and values in a text. In the Seminar, participants systematically question and examine issues and principles related to a particular content, and articulate different points-of-view. The group conversation assists participants in constructing meaning through disciplined analysis, interpretation, listening, and participation
Socratic Seminar: Participant Rubric [DOC]Students Participant Rubric (Peer-Evaluation and Self Evaluation)
Study guide socratic seminar rubric.doc - Canton Public Schools [DOC]
Basic Participant Rubric | Teacher or peer graded
Socratic Seminar Rubric [DOC] Basic Participant Rubric
Socratic Seminar Rubric [DOC] Basic Participant Rubric
Socratic Method Resource
The Socratic Method - Stanford University
Module 2--The Socratic Questioning Method - Austin ISD
Gently Socratic Inquiry
Warning: The Socratic Method Can Be Dangerous - ASCD
Socratic Questioning
Socratic Questioning - The Critical Thinking Community
Using Socratic Questioning to Promote Critical Thinking
Socratic Seminar Resources
Socratic Seminar: The Power of Questions - Beaverton School District
Socratic Seminar Ground Rules Poster - Socratic Seminars Northwest
Socratic Seminar Leadership Training - Socratic Seminars Northwest
Rules for Socratic Seminar
SOCRATIC SEMINARS - Authentic Education
Socratic Seminar Format Overview (4th-12th ... - Robert Frost Farm
Socratic Seminar
Common Core Critical Thinking Reading Passages | College and Career Readiness
syntopical
The list of 103 ideas is broken between the two volumes, as follows:
Volume I: Angel, Animal, Aristocracy, Art, Astronomy, Beauty, Being, Cause, Chance, Change, Citizen, Constitution, Courage, Custom and Convention, Definition, Democracy, Desire, Dialectic, Duty, Education, Element, Emotion, Eternity, Evolution, Experience, Family, Fate, Form, God, Good and Evil, Government, Habit, Happiness, History, Honor, Hypothesis, Idea, Immortality, Induction, Infinity, Judgment, Justice, Knowledge, Labor, Language, Law, Liberty, Life and Death, Logic, and Love.
Volume II: Man, Mathematics, Matter, Mechanics, Medicine, Memory and Imagination, Metaphysics, Mind, Monarchy, Nature, Necessity and Contingency, Oligarchy, One and Many, Opinion, Opposition,[13] Philosophy, Physics, Pleasure and Pain, Poetry, Principle, Progress, Prophecy, Prudence, Punishment, Quality, Quantity, Reasoning, Relation,[14] Religion, Revolution, Rhetoric, Same and Other, Science, Sense, Sign and Symbol, Sin, Slavery, Soul, Space, State, Temperance, Theology, Time, Truth, Tyranny and Despotism, Universal and Particular, Virtue and Vice, War and Peace, Wealth, Will, Wisdom, and World.
ReadingsTales of Space and Time | The Crystal Egg
Critical thinking reading passages are the foundation of Socratic seminars and quality close reading. Selecting reading passages that inspire curiosity, critical thinking and can be used for either close reading or Socratic seminars takes pre-planning and a bit of text analysis. One of the best methods for selecting Critical Thinking Reading Passages is using a Syntopical examination of how many great ideas the passages contain. Dr. Mortimer J. Adler created a list of 103 philosophical topics that can be used to analyze text for the quality of ideas presented. Text selection is key to quality close reading and immersive Socratic seminars.
syntopical
- Referring to a type of analysis in which different works are compared and contrasted.
After finishing his syntopical reading of the leaders' speeches, he wrote an essay comparing the language used by Reagan, Carter, Gorbachev, and Qaddafi.
A list of 103 philosophical topics
Dr. Mortimer J. Adler Co-Founder and Chairman Center
The 103 Great Ideas Alphabetically
The 103 Great Ideas by Category
Volume I: Angel, Animal, Aristocracy, Art, Astronomy, Beauty, Being, Cause, Chance, Change, Citizen, Constitution, Courage, Custom and Convention, Definition, Democracy, Desire, Dialectic, Duty, Education, Element, Emotion, Eternity, Evolution, Experience, Family, Fate, Form, God, Good and Evil, Government, Habit, Happiness, History, Honor, Hypothesis, Idea, Immortality, Induction, Infinity, Judgment, Justice, Knowledge, Labor, Language, Law, Liberty, Life and Death, Logic, and Love.
Volume II: Man, Mathematics, Matter, Mechanics, Medicine, Memory and Imagination, Metaphysics, Mind, Monarchy, Nature, Necessity and Contingency, Oligarchy, One and Many, Opinion, Opposition,[13] Philosophy, Physics, Pleasure and Pain, Poetry, Principle, Progress, Prophecy, Prudence, Punishment, Quality, Quantity, Reasoning, Relation,[14] Religion, Revolution, Rhetoric, Same and Other, Science, Sense, Sign and Symbol, Sin, Slavery, Soul, Space, State, Temperance, Theology, Time, Truth, Tyranny and Despotism, Universal and Particular, Virtue and Vice, War and Peace, Wealth, Will, Wisdom, and World.
Creating your own Socratic Inquiry with Daily Literature Circles
Socratic Seminar Questions?
How do laws serve or harm justice?
Why is the concept of blind justice important?
The Logicians Refuted
Logicians have but ill defined
As rational, the human kind;
Reason, they say, belongs to man,
But let them prove it if they can.
Wise Aristotle and Smiglesius,
By ratiocinations specious,
Have strove to prove, with great precision,
With definition and division,
Homo est ratione praeditum;
But for my soul I cannot credit 'em,
And must, in spite of them, maintain,
That man and all his ways are vain;
And that this boasted lord of nature
Is both a weak and erring creature;
That instinct is a surer guide
Than reason, boasting mortals' pride;
And that brute beasts are far before 'em.
Deus est anima brutorum.
Whoever knew an honest brute
At law his neighbour prosecute,
Bring action for assault or battery,
Or friend beguile with lies and flattery?
O'er plains they ramble unconfined,
No politics disturb their mind;
They eat their meals, and take their sport
Nor know who's in or out at court.
They never to the levee go
To treat, as dearest friend, a foe:
They never importune his grace,
Nor ever cringe to men in place:
Nor undertake a dirty job,
Nor draw the quill to write for Bob.
Fraught with invective, they ne'er go
To folks at Paternoster Row.
No judges, fiddlers, dancing-masters,
No pickpockets, or poetasters,
Are known to honest quadrupeds;
No single brute his fellow leads.
Brutes never meet in bloody fray,
Nor cut each other's throats for pay.
Of beasts, it is confess'd, the ape
Comes nearest us in human shape;
Like man, he imitates each fashion,
And malice is his lurking passion:
But, both in malice and grimaces,
A courtier any ape surpasses.
Behold him, humbly cringing, wait
Upon the minister of state;
View him soon after to inferiors
Aping the conduct of superiors;
He promises with equal air,
And to perform takes equal care.
He in his turn finds imitators,
At court, the porters, lacqueys, waiters,
Their masters' manner still contract,
And footmen, lords and dukes can act.
Thus, at the court, both great and small
Behave alike, for all ape all.
Wells, H. G.
There was, until a year ago, a little and very grimy-looking shop near Seven Dials, over which, in weather-worn yellow lettering, the name of "C. Cave, Naturalist and Dealer in Antiquities," was inscribed. The contents of its window were curiously variegated. They comprised some elephant tusks and an imperfect set of chessmen, beads and weapons, a box of eyes, two skulls of tigers and one human, several moth-eaten stuffed monkeys (one holding a lamp), an old-fashioned cabinet, a flyblown ostrich egg or so, some fishing-tackle, and an extraordinarily dirty, empty glass fish-tank. There was also, at the moment the story begins, a mass of crystal, worked into the shape of an egg and brilliantly polished. And at that two people, who stood outside the window, were looking, one of them a tall, thin clergyman, the other a black-bearded young man of dusky complexion and unobtrusive costume. The dusky young man spoke with eager gesticulation, and seemed anxious for his companion to purchase the article. CWPM 164
There was, until a year ago, a little and very grimy-looking shop near Seven Dials, over which, in weather-worn yellow lettering, the name of "C. Cave, Naturalist and Dealer in Antiquities," was inscribed. The contents of its window were curiously variegated. They comprised some elephant tusks and an imperfect set of chessmen, beads and weapons, a box of eyes, two skulls of tigers and one human, several moth-eaten stuffed monkeys (one holding a lamp), an old-fashioned cabinet, a flyblown ostrich egg or so, some fishing-tackle, and an extraordinarily dirty, empty glass fish-tank. There was also, at the moment the story begins, a mass of crystal, worked into the shape of an egg and brilliantly polished. And at that two people, who stood outside the window, were looking, one of them a tall, thin clergyman, the other a black-bearded young man of dusky complexion and unobtrusive costume. The dusky young man spoke with eager gesticulation, and seemed anxious for his companion to purchase the article. CWPM 164
While they were there, Mr. Cave came into his shop, his beard still wagging with the bread and butter of his tea. When he saw these men and the object of their regard, his countenance fell. He glanced guiltily over his shoulder, and softly shut the door. He was a little old man, with pale face and peculiar watery blue eyes; his hair was a dirty grey, and he wore a shabby blue frock coat, an ancient silk hat, and carpet slippers very much down at heel. He remained watching the two men as they talked. The clergyman went deep into his trouser pocket, examined a handful of money, and showed his teeth in an agreeable smile. Mr. Cave seemed still more depressed when they came into the shop. The clergyman, without any ceremony, asked the price of the crystal egg. Mr. Cave glanced nervously towards the door leading into the parlor, and said five pounds. The clergyman protested that the price was high, to his companion as well as to Mr. Cave—it was, indeed, very much more than Mr. Cave had intended to ask, when he had stocked the article—and an attempt at bargaining ensued. Mr. Cave stepped to the shop-door, and held it open. "Five pounds is my price," he said, as though he wished to save himself the trouble of unprofitable discussion. As he did so, the upper portion of a woman's face appeared above the blind in the glass upper panel of the door leading into the parlor, and stared curiously at the two customers. "Five pounds is my price," said Mr. Cave, with a quiver in his voice. CWPM 275 + 164
- How would you finish writing this story?
- What conclusions can you draw from both people wanting to buy the article (The Crystal Egg)?
- How would you react to finding a brilliantly polished Crystal Egg in a thrift shop?
- Can you predict some outcomes if ether or neither of the men purchase the The Crystal Egg?
- What is your interpretation of the author’s main idea or moral to this story?
- How would you describe the opening sequence of events and their importance to the story?
- Can you elaborate on the reason why the author used contrasting characters that want to buy the The Crystal Egg?
- What would happen if the The Crystal Egg has supernatural power or amazing alien technology?
- Can you formulate a theory for why the men want to buy The Crystal Egg?
- Can you explain what it means when Anna feels ground to the bone by her boss?
- How would you compare the tone of The Crystal Egg to other Science fiction stories?
- How would you summarize the feelings of the merchant towards the customers?
- What do you notice about the authors use of Mr. Caves demeanor and falling countenance?
