The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Sociograms

There are many types of sociograms, but the most common is a dialogue map. For this, draw a picture of where all of the participants are sitting (include yourself) and then draw a line connecting a speaker and a listener. Continue drawing as people participate and you will have something resembling a spider web. Or a lopsided one. Or a few highways between several students who continuously argued. But such a map only becomes a useful sociogram if the group then begins to unpack the social implications and connections. For example, perhaps a small group did most of the talking—and it turns out that they are all friends. How will you get other students outside of that group to participate? How will you split that friendship group so that they can think as individuals? More typical sociograms start by asking students a few questions about their friendships and interactions: close friend, friend, friend of a friend, and so on. When mapped out, these sociograms can show us a lot about the social dynamics in a group and how those might be affecting dialogue.