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

Pre-Seminar

When seminars or discussion do not go well, for a variety of reasons, the problem can often be traced to a lack of work in the pre-seminar. Before a Socratic Seminar occurs, students should prepare a text with questions and annotations so that they have various talking points. A lack of work at this point means there are fewer things to talk about, fewer connections made, and far fewer wonderings. For this reason, it is good practice to read a seminar text at least twice, making sure that at least one of the sessions is focused on generating curiosity. Students questions drive real inquiry, so it's important to teach them about various types of questions, especially as they are annotating.

Book Excerpt

The Power of the Socratic Classroom

This stage of seminar assists students in using strategies and finding avenues into the text. For the most part, this stage involves annotating and “preparing a text” ahead of time: looking up vocabulary words, journaling, organizing information, putting symbols in the margins, generating questions, reading background material, and blogging.

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Charles Ames Fischer

The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

Pre-Seminar

Book Excerpt

The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Comment on this Bubble