A Socratic Seminar for Elementary Learners
Socratic seminars have been around, obviously, since the days of Socratics. I believe they are an underutilized but powerful instructional strategy.
In the Socratic method of education, teachers engage students by asking questions that require generative answers. Ideally, the answers to questions are not a stopping point for thought but are instead a beginning to further analysis and research. The goal of the Socratic method is to help students process information and engage in deeper understanding of topics. Most importantly, Socratic teaching engages students in dialogue and discussion that is collaborative and open-minded.
Ideally, teachers develop open-ended questions about texts and encourage students to use textual evidence to support their opinions and answers. In the Socratic seminar, the teacher uses questions to guide discussion around specific learning goals. Socratic questioning is a systematic process for examining the ideas, questions, and answers that form the basis of human belief. It involves recognizing that all new understanding is linked to prior understanding, that thought itself is a continuous thread woven throughout lives rather than isolated sets of questions and answers. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4994
The Benefits of Socratic Seminars are:
- Offer opportunities for student voice
- Embrace the power of open-ended questions
- Often mimic how intellectual discourse occurs in real like
- Support providing evidence-based arguments
- Build active listening skills
- Reinforce close reading
- Approach real world solutions as having multiple perspectives
- Hone critical thinking skills
- Build oral communication skills
- Emphasize the importance of critical reflection
- Help to develop conflict resolution skills
To learn more about Socratic Seminars, visit:
- https://www.paideia.org/about-paideia/socratic-seminar/
- http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/socratic-seminars-30600.html
- https://www.edutopia.org/blog/socratic-seminars-culture-student-led-discussion-mary-davenport
Sneetches: A Socratic Seminar
I introduced the Socratic Seminar to my two groups gifted elementary learners, ages 7 to 12, through the following slidedeck and by using Dr. Seuss’s Sneetches
Here is some highlights from this Socratic Seminar:
Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D.
User Generated Education 
For years I have been using the Socratic Method to teach my second graders how to write. I never tell them what I think they should do. Through questioning strategies, I attempt to lead them to their own solutions and help them go deeper. Most of the time I am pleasantly surprised by their completed project.
Kathleen McDonough
February 25, 2024 at 3:24 pm