"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it."
- J.D. Salinger
LA 10 Honors Assessments
Socratic Seminars are a common way that we assess student knowledge and understanding of a novel or text. This seminar provides students the opportunity to engage with their peers and push their reading comprehension toward deeper meaning. To begin the seminar, I will post a prompting question on the Smart board. As the conversation continues, I remain silent. Students will engage each other. If the conversations seems to slow down, I will be prepared with another prompt. It is student lead, and reveals the student's grasp of the work. As the students engage with the seminar, I chart the pattern of participation. Below is an example from a two-day socratic seminar on the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
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