Socratic Seminar

Warning! Read the following only if you are interested in our Social Studies 6 Socratic Seminar experience.

We just completed a unit on "Players" of the Renaissance. Students chose from four categories of Renaissance personalities (players) and then, by blind draw, selected a player to research. We used a fixed computer lab one day and Jennifer and I split the mobile lab combined with BYOD (bring your own device) the second day to complete research. Next, we had students grouped according to their "category" to expand their notes to include the other players in the category. The next step had students jigsaw grouped so that each represented one of the four categories. The last step was for students to leave their jigsaw groups and complete, solo, the three questions that would be their final preparation for the Socratic Seminar.
The three questions were:
     What category impacted the Renaissance most and why?
     What player made the biggest impact and why?
     What player was the most interesting and why?

All three opinion open ended questions were the basis for our Socratic Seminar discussion as a finale. We used this process to assess students as well. The basic level of our assessment included the initial research on student's Renaissance player. Students that completed basic research earned a basic C. The actual discussion (Socratic Seminar) took place over 1 1/2 class periods in which we used three rotations. One third of students were in the actual discussion and two thirds seated around the outside. Students seated around the outside each had an "observation" sheet of which they had to complete by observing an assigned student from the inside one third. A key to success is to include students that are not directly involved in the discussion. The observation sheets accomplished this very well. Next time we may consider a better accountability tool for the observers as it kept them very involved but students overall did a poor job of noting what they heard. We did not use the outside observation for grades. Students could  earn a B-A+ range grade for their conversation in the seminar about the players of the Renaissance.

This was our first attempt at a major Socratic event. After much discussion and idea sharing with colleagues we built handouts to guide students along the way. This unit took 7 days including the final two days for the actual discussion and exit card reflection.

Socratic Seminar is a CTL technique and you can see a couple video clips from Lavon's class.

Lavon's Socratic Seminar clips

Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

Folow-Up Fridays

Hey guys. Thursday morning Matt, Nancy, and Cam were our featured presenters and they showed us how to begin using PlanbookEdu. This electronic plan book is a dandy especially if you like to use technology and particularly if you like simple. Matt did a more full blown presentation but I screen casted a short tutorial (10:45) on some basics of the web-based program. Matt did a fantastic job but for those of you who may have wanted to attend but couldn't, here is the upshot.

Also, when I uploaded this clip to YouTube I noticed a few other video tutorials. I will link them here below in case one is specific to your needs or you just don't want to listen to me.

How to create a plan book:
Setting up templates:
Planbook Explainer:
PlanbookEdu Commercial:
You Should Get This:
Standards:
Introduction:
Bump Forward:

Well, maybe I overdid it again. Or, don't watch any of them and just try it out for yourself. You won't regret it.

Oh, and, presenter's checks are in the mail.

Your Discovery Literacy Team

Thinking Thursday

Hey all. I'm live blogging from Matt's room. Matt and his trusty assistants are showing set up and the fabulous uses for PlanbookEdu. It is a web based electronic plan book. There is a free version and fee-based version but the fee-based version is so worth the money ($25 per yr.). The fee version allows you to share, attach files, and many other little perks such as spell check. You may attach files, links, and even YouTube videos, that are live and click able. Standards are available and visible for your subject area (more than likely) and Common Core and track your use of them.

Another cool feature of PlanbookEdu is that you can set up as many classes as you wish. If you teach more than one section, you can set a plan for each and even additional plans if you like to add notes to each day. You can share or collaborate with anyone (fee-based only).

At the very least, check out the free 14 day trial version.

Have a great one,
Your Discovery Literacy Leaders