The Socratic Seminar with Novels | Part Two

In my previous Socratic Seminar blog post, I talked all about what the Socratic Seminar is and the research base behind it. I wanted this post to be more about how I use the Socratic Seminar in my classroom. I wanted to go into how I implement it with all of my novel studies and reading units in TeachersPayTeachers store.

This post will hopefully answer some frequently asked questions about Socratic Seminars in upper elementary and middle school classrooms.

HOW THE SOCRATIC SEMINAR LOOKS DIFFERENT IN MY CLASSROOM

My previous blog was about how a Socratic Seminar looks in the more traditional sense and how they are applied to a classroom in a more formal way. I have seen the, done in the more formal way in all ages of classrooms, and I have even done a more formal seminar in my middle school ELA classroom with my seventh and eighth graders.

In order to do Socratic Seminars the way I have outlined in my fifth grade, sixth grade, and middle school reading units, they are designed to be less formal. Technically my reading unit lesson plans are set up so that you are doing one every single day. When I taught fifth grade self-contained, we honestly did a “Socratic Seminar” almost every single day during a novel reading unit. I was at a school that had no curriculum, so I didn’t have to try and squeeze anything in, or try to squeeze my units in on top of the required curriculum. I do have required novels in middle school ELA, so now I just create these same type of units for any of my required novels.

When I taught sixth grade, I had required curriculum and content. When I taught seventh and eighth grade ELA, I had required content. Both of these meant that I was able to utilize my reading units and the Socratic Seminar, but it just wasn’t realistic to do a Socratic Seminar every day. I could easily pick and choose what days or what guiding and/or interpretive questions seemed the most thought-provoking and then had our seminars one to two times a week.

SOCRATIC SEMINAR READING UNIT LESSON PLAN

Below is an example of a lesson plan from my 6th-8th reading unit for Out of the Dust. It breaks down how the class period should go, but in general it goes in the following manner:

1. Ask the Hook Question: This is just to get students thinking about the novel and to hook them into the chapter or section we’re reading that day.

2. Read Aloud of the Novel: I read aloud all the novels we read in class (in grades fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade) because I think the novel is the tool to get students, thinking, talking, and discussing. I feel my read aloud takes about 10-15 minutes each class period.

• While I am reading, I may pause to ask a comprehension questions. This is just to have students share and talk while we’re doing the reading.
• I may also stop and ask what some vocabulary words might mean. This is especially true if students can figure them out by using context clues.

3. Have students label their notebooks with a relevant title and date (i.e. Out of the Dust Response Three: 11-12-2020).

4. Ask the Guiding Question: Have students do a very quick 4-5 minute quick write to that question. Students do this in their reading response books on a new blank page. I have them draw a line underneath their response to the guiding question so they have room to write their response to the interpretive question.

5. The Socratic Seminar based on the Interpretive Question: I ask students the interpretive question and tell them we are having a Socratic Seminar based on the questions.

Before I got deeper into the seminar, here is a quick look at my class schedules so you can see the time break-down of how it looks:

SOCRATIC SEMINAR BASED ON THE INTERPRETIVE QUESTION

This is where the Socratic Seminar is different from what you might see otherwise. Often times, students will need to prepare for the discussion. I see that a lot at the high school and older level. Middle schoolers still should be allowed to prepare for their discussions occasionally. This is especially true if they are going to be assessed on their contributions to the seminar. For these units, students aren’t graded on their discussion during the seminar. I grade their reading responses (the final blog post in this series is all about how I do grading with these units).

You may have learned to have students get into different circle formations for discussion. Because these are more informal for my class and I, I just have students stay in their desks where they are.  Plus I honestly don’t want it to take forever. My students are never in rows to begin with. Now with social distancing guidelines, this shows that this can be down without movement of desks anyway.

WHAT PURPOSE DOES THE SOCRATIC SEMINAR SERVE?

The Socratic Seminar is simply a way to give students a really thoughtful, yet relevant to the text, question. The question should push them into a deep discussion. The interpretive questions are all based on the novel and the CCSS literature or informational standards, but again, it’s meant to foster open-ended discussion and possibly more questions from students.

I simply ask the questions, explain to students that I will write notes about their thinking while they are discussing. It is up to them to keep the discussion going. I tell them not to worry about raising their hands. They should treat it like they are having a whole class discussion about the interpretive question. I obviously do have to intervene at times, especially in the beginning. Like anything, the more the students do the Socratic Seminar, the more comfortable and easy it becomes.

Students start discussing and then I start writing on my white board. Here are some examples of how those “notes” looked during our discussions.

 

You can see that a lot of this doesn’t make sense and I am kind of all over the place. I have to write fast, especially if the students are having a good discussion. They know what I wrote and what they said; this is just a good reminder. It serves as their reference too when they write their second reading response.

The pictures above are examples I used from short stories. The picture on the left below is from my Sixth Grade The Crossover unit (I now have a middle school version here). The picture on the right is from my sixth-eighth grade The Maze Runner unit. 

THE SOCRATIC SEMINAR AND STUDENT READING RESPONSES

One of the biggest benefits of the Socratic Seminar is that students get to hear each other’s thinking. They can then use the discussion to write a better and more thought out reading response. In turn, you will be blow away with how much they grow as readers and writers.

Below are some example of my students’ reading response over the years from when I taught fifth, sixth, and middle school. All responses are the results of the Socratic Seminar in some way.

UPDATES TO THE SOCRATIC SEMINAR READING UNITS

Over the years, I have had to adapt because of grade level changes, and the amount of time I have. Because of that, there have been many updates, especially recently to make them much easier to use for teachers. Number one was adding display slides (pictured below) for all the guiding and interpretive questions. There is nothing that will drive you crazier than hearing, “What was the questions again,” nine million time. I simply display them guiding question while I am reading, as long as it doesn’t give anything away. Then I display the interpretive question while students are having the seminar. These have been a game changer.

COMPREHENSION QUESTION SUGGESTED ANSWERS

Probably the number one request I have had over the last four years is for suggested answers for all the comprehension questions. I stubbornly resisted because I really didn’t want teachers to focus on the questions or “comprehension” in general. Students have to comprehend to answer the guiding and interpretive questions, because of the analysis required. However, when I went to middle school ELA, I was often learning the novel with my students. When I purchased resources, I was using them to teach me, and much as my students. I realized how valuable the answer keys are for teachers, even if they don’t use them in the way I fear. ha!

I have been working for months to get all the reading units updated to have the answer keys included either right after the comprehension question, or on the next page. I have about forty units, and thirty of them are 100% updated.

I have also added five suggest vocabulary words and definitions to teach lesson. Again, I learned that just suggestions helped me as a teacher. About one-two days a week, my students and I do vocabulary lessons instead of the Socratic Seminar. We just do a simple format like the one pictured below.

As time goes on, I have the students pick their own vocabulary words and create a page like the one below.

DIGITAL COMPONENTS ADDED TO THE SOCRATIC SEMINAR READING UNITS

With the pandemic and distance learning being the way of many school districts, digital options have been on the fore front of my mind. These units could easily be adapted to digital or distance learning in many ways with or without the Socratic Seminar. You could honestly just post the interpretive question as a discussion question that students respond to somewhere. They could then use their classmates responses to write or type theirs.

I also tried to create some digital options for students and teachers for both the reading response aspects and the vocabulary aspect. Nothing crazy fancy, but it’s one less thing to worry about by having the digital option.

WHY A BLOG POST ABOUT SOCRATIC SEMINARS?

I have been making reading units (not novel studies) for seven years now. Every single one uses the Socratic Seminar to guide and facilitate questions and discussion with my students. I have utilized the Socratic Seminar in many ways in grades fifth through eighth, but especially with novels. The bundles below show you all units I have available:

1. Fifth Grade Socratic Seminar Reading Units 
2. Sixth Grade Socratic Seminar Reading Units
3. Middle School Socratic Seminar Reading Units

RELATED BLOG POSTS AND PRODUCTS:

BLOG POST: The Socratic Seminar: Research Base and Set-Up | Part One

BLOG POST: Middle School Reading ELA CCSS Standards with Engaging Novels 

https://thehungryteacherblog.com/product/middle-school-socratic-seminar-reading-units-big-bundle-6th-7th-and-8th-grade

BLOG POST: Teach the 6th Grade CCSS Reading Standards with Novels

https://thehungryteacherblog.com/product/sixth-grade-reading-curriculum-with-reading-units-all-genres

BLOG POST: Teaching 5th Grade WITH Novels All Year Long: The Fifth Grade Literature and Informational Standards

https://thehungryteacherblog.com/product/fifth-grade-reading-unit-bundle-fifth-grade-reading-curriculum