Getting the Ball Rolling with Seminar: A Socratic Seminar Practice Game
By Susan Holmes-Glazier
IMTI Team Member, Practitioner Support
I love a really good Socratic seminar: everyone has read the text, ideas are flowing, students are so engaged that they are practically bouncing out of their chairs in their impatience to make their point heard, people are reconsidering the ideas they came in with, and the time flies by unnoticed. Then there are the Socratic seminars that mostly consist of strained silences and averted eyes of students hoping not to make eye contact, so they won’t have to speak up. When it gets that quiet, I can actually hear the analog clock on the classroom wall ticking away the seconds. We’ve all been there (well, maybe you possess some sort of Socratic seminar superpower and never get stuck, but I have certainly had my share of seminars that flopped).
So, last year I created a game to practice seminar skills. It worked well, and it was silly, good fun too. As we get deeper into the new school year mostly in person (at least in this part of the world), I am sharing it with you as a back-to-seminar gift. I hope it helps you and your students get rolling and get to the lovely synergy of a good seminar.
Materials:
Transition cards (see description below)
Ball that can be safely thrown in your environment
Circle of chairs
Observation tracking forms
List of topics and questions
Preparation:
Arrange all participants in a circle as you would for a seminar. With some fanfare, hand out “transition cards” to each participant (I like to walk around like a magician with a card trick and let them “pick a card, any card!”)
Choose a few students to be observers and let them choose one observation form. Ask them to sit just outside the circle where they can see well for active observation.
Game Play:
You, the adult guide, hold the ball and introduce a topic from your “list of topics and questions.” To begin with, I chose a simple statement such as “Banana is the best type of ice cream” or a familiar short poem or nursery rhyme such as “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumped over the candlestick.”
Next, any student can motion that they have something to say and request that they get the ball. You will need to decide how you communicate this. For example, are students expected to raise their hands in seminar? Do they use body language to communicate their desire to speak? Do they wait for an appropriate pause and begin to speak? This is a great time to experiment with these different practices.
Throw the ball to the person who wishes to speak.
That student MUST begin their thought with the words on one of their transition cards. For example, “I agree that banana is the best type of ice cream because…” or “That is an interesting point, but I see it a different way because…”
Each transition statement may only be used ONCE per round. We found we did have to bend the rule about only beginning with the transition statements a tiny bit when we got stuck, but it really only happened once or twice per round. We just adjusted on the fly if that happened.
During the game, the observers take notes on the discussion (see explanation below).
The ball throwing and discussion using words from the transition cards continued until everyone had used all three of their statements. Usually by that point there had been lots of laughter and some pretty outlandish ideas introduced.
Ask each of the observers to give a summary of their notes to the group.
Along the way, we practiced our seminar grace and courtesy skills such as advocating for someone who wished to speak and disagreeing with ideas rather than with people. Because the topics were so lighthearted and silly, and because we got a bit rambunctious with the ball throwing, we were able to create an atmosphere in which all of the students felt very free to participate.
I saw immediate improvement in the flow of our Literature Seminar and Socratic Seminar discussions after a few times through the game. I am looking forward to using this in our first week of school as training and preparation for seminars.
I hope this gives you another tool to put in your pocket. Wishing you the best for a peaceful and fulfilling year!
Transition Cards
Write one statement per card. The “agree, disagree, paraphrase, etc.” headings were just for organizing my own thinking and to make sure I had a balance of types of statements.
Agree
I agree with _________ because…
I would like to add to ________’s point and say that…
There is evidence for what ________ is saying in the text when…
I share that same opinion because….
Disagree
I disagree with _________ because…
I interpreted things differently. What I think is….
You/He/She made a good point, but I think…
That’s an interesting point _____________, but I see it a different way because…
Paraphrase
So are you saying that…
In other words, you think… Is that right?
What I hear you saying is….
Acknowledge Ideas
My idea is similar to yours in that…
I agree with you/her/him that..
My idea builds upon _______’s idea…
Question
Why do you think that _____________ did/said/acted ______________?
To what extent is it the case that __________________?
Would you all agree with the statement _______________? Why or why not?
Can you elaborate on that please?
What evidence leads you to that understanding?
Clarify
I think I understand what you’re getting at, but I’m not sure. Can you explain it a little more?
What part of the text made you think that?
Can you express that differently?
Can you give evidence to support that idea?
Affirm
That’s an interesting idea.
I hadn’t thought of that before.
I see what you mean.
Observation Tracking Forms
(adapted from Pat Ludick)
Draw a circle and mark the names of each student where they are sitting as in the diagram below.
Interaction tracker - draw lines between each student who speaks to another. You will develop a web that will indicate how actively each student participated.
Question tracker - Make a note each time a student offers a question for discussion.
Interruption tracker - make a tally mark next to a student for every time they interrupt someone else.
Note taker - Write down really interesting or otherwise noteworthy ideas next to the name of the student who said it.
