The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Education & Reference

synopsis

Synopsis

Do You Have 21st-Century Skills to Help Your Students Succeed? Do Your Students Have 21st-Century Skills to Think for Themselves? The Power of the Socratic Classroom has the answers you are looking for—answers that will supply the strategies to show students how to succeed into the future. A future that has unknown products, unidentified jobs, and unanticipated challenges. In Socratic Seminar, teachers shift to the role of facilitator, where they help their students develop the collaborative interpersonal skills, the critical and creative thinking skills, and the speaking and listening skills to face the upcoming challenges of the 21st century.

bio

Author Biography

Charles Fischer has taught in public and private schools in a variety of settings, from rural Maine to inner city Atlanta. In the past 20 years, he has worked with a wide range of students from 4th grade to AP English and has been nominated for Teacher of the Year four times. He has his Master’s degree in Teaching & Learning from the University of Southern Maine, and received his B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from Binghamton University. His latest book, The Power of the Socratic Classroom, has won four awards, including the NIEA Best Education Book. His first novel, Beyond Infinity, won a 2014 Independent Publisher Book Award bronze medal (YA fiction). His areas of expertise are Socratic Seminar, Active Listening, Inquiry, Teaching & Learning, and Critical & Creative Thinking. He is currently working on a book of poetry, a short story collection, and several novels.

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Author Insight

Grading With Point Systems

I have seen a lot of systems for grading seminars or discussions and many of them are based on some kind of point system. The trouble is that many students will then talk for the sake of a grade instead of the actual conversation. What tends to happen is a lot of talking but little or none of it is truly relevant and working toward a group goal. I have rarely seen any of these systems generate a quality conversation. If you do want to continue with a point system, make sure to add a group grade to help steer conversation into more productive directions.

Book Excerpt

The Power of the Socratic Classroom

The main problem with tracking occurs when students ask questions or add comments for the sake of getting more tally marks, rather than for the purposes of facilitating genuine conversation. A few measures can fix this so that the conversation can be organic. First, tracking should not be the only means of grading. A tracking system is mainly an observational tool used to inform practice and to set goals.

If you share your tracking system with the students in order to provide feedback, make sure that it is not strictly connected to a grade. For example, six comments earn an A, four comments is a B and so on. This will usually encourage talk for the sake of talking. Work the concept of progress over time into the system so that you do not automatically penalize shy students. This way two contributions from a shy student can be an A and eight comments from a talkative student could also be an A. Students could also have individualized goals to aim for in order to earn specific grades.

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Charles Ames Fischer

The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

Grading With Point Systems

Book Excerpt

The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Comment on this Bubble