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.
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.
I have written before that the single best way to get shy students to participate is to: 1. Ask a new question. 2. Do a turn-and-talk. 3. Say, "I'd like to hear from someone who hasn't spoken yet."
When strategies like that still don't work, I often meet one-on-one with shy students and talk to them about how to participate. I often suggest that they ask a question early in the dialogue. I may even have them ask the opening question for the seminar, even if I crafted the question. Most students have been willing to do that, and once they get past the nervousness of that, they often can find other ways to enter the conversation in the future.
Book Excerpt
The Power of the Socratic Classroom
It is often much easier to respond to a question than it is to a statement, and many shy students find it easier to participate by asking a question than sharing an opinion.
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