Directions for Socratic Seminars

DIRECTIONS FOR SOCRATIC SEMINAR

Warriors Don’t Cry

For the Socratic Seminar, you will be part of a group discussion that will engage all students to think critically about specific literary elements associated with the novel, “Warriors Don’t Cry.”

The goals of the Socratic Seminar include addressing essential questions on the novel by; presenting claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence throughout the novel, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details.

In order to accomplish these goals, you must come prepared with your responses to assigned questions using notes from your journals, the text and other reputable sources. You must also speak and share your responses with your group members using appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

For the Socratic Seminar to be successful, everyone must work together to justify their thinking on questions using evidence and elaboration, and everyone must take turns initiated questions to further the discussion. This is how you will be assessed.

Each group will be assigned to a set ofquestionsthat they must respond to within a 15 minute time frame (3-5 minutes per question). Each group willsit in a circle at the front of the class while the rest of the class silently evaluates and records 2-3 “take aways” from each discussion.

Members of the class will silently write down what they observe; they may not talk and are not part of the discussion.

Before the Socratic Seminar

1.You will be assigned to a specific group.

2.Each group will receive a set of essential questions to prepare a response to which must include: evidence specifically drawn from the text, thoughtful analysis, and probing questions for the group to engage in further discussion.

3.You should come to your group with your journal notes, quotes, passages from the book, and answers to your prompt so you can discuss your viewpoints with other members of your group. The more notes you have, the more you will be able to add, the better your discussion will be.

4.You will be graded on your participation in the discussion,preparedness, level of thoughtful analysis to evidence, ability to question for clarification and to enhance the discussion.