Teaching · For Teachers

Socratic Seminar Planner

Plan a seminar where students do the talking and point to the text: an open first question, a clear format and a period that adds up.

Start a planWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the For Teachers toolkit, $79 for 92 items.

Plans

Each plan keeps the questions, the format, the norms and a timed period. Load the worked example to see a 55-minute seminar in two circles.

Loading the seminar plan form. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

Teaching · For Teachers$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A seminar plan with the text, the goal, the format, the opening, core and closing questions and the posted norms; a timeline that adds up against the period and shows the student talk and prep time; seven checks marked ready, not yet or not needed; and a run sheet with the questions to print.
Who it is for
Middle and high school teachers of English, history, science and other text-based courses.
Format
Browser tool with a saved record per seminar plan. Prints a run sheet with clock times, the full seminar plan, every seminar plan in a table or a blank form; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the For Teachers toolkit ($79) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The For Teachers space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Choose the text and the format.
  2. Write the opening question.
  3. Lay out the period.
  4. Mark the checks.
  5. Print the run sheet with the questions.

Start a plan

Discussion that stays in the text

Three kinds of seminar questionOpeningOpen, with more than onedefensible answerSends students into thetextExample: what does thewriter want from thereaderCoreClose reading of onepassageAsks how the text makesits pointExample: why this word,hereClosingConnects the text to thestudentsAsks what changed intheir thinkingExample: where do yousee this todayThree kinds of seminar questionOpeningOpen, with more than one defensible answerSends students into the textExample: what does the writer want from thereaderCoreClose reading of one passageAsks how the text makes its pointExample: why this word, hereClosingConnects the text to the studentsAsks what changed in their thinkingExample: where do you see this today
A good opening question cannot be answered with a fact and cannot be answered without the text.

What the research shows

Studies of classroom discussion find that open questions and student-to-student talk are linked with better understanding of texts, and that teacher-led question and answer is not discussion in this sense. An analysis of discussion approaches found the gains in comprehension were largest when students did more of the talking.

The teacher's job during the seminar

Before: choose the text, the questions and the norms. During: listen, track and step in only to redirect. After: read the reflections to see what each student took away.

Sources

  1. Murphy, P. K., Wilkinson, I. A. G., Soter, A. O., Hennessey, M. N., and Alexander, J. F. (2009). Examining the effects of classroom discussion on students' comprehension of text: a meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(3), 740-764.
  2. Nystrand, M., Gamoran, A., Kachur, R., and Prendergast, C. (1997). Opening Dialogue: Understanding the Dynamics of Language and Learning in the English Classroom. Teachers College Press.
  3. Copeland, M. (2005). Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High School. Stenhouse.
  4. Adler, M. J. (1982). The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto. Macmillan.

The worked examples are made up. The 75 percent and 20-minute flags are planning rules of thumb. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.