Socratic Seminar

Students sit in a circle and discuss an open-ended question about a text, citing evidence.

Procedure

1. Assign a text for pre-reading.
2. Prepare one genuinely open-ended question (no single right answer).
3. Students sit in a circle; teacher facilitates minimally.
4. Students discuss, building on each other's ideas and citing the text as evidence.
5. Teacher tracks participation; debrief on both content and discussion quality.

Tips

• Set two ground rules: cite the text and build on what someone else said before introducing a new point.
• Teacher speaks as little as possible.