Socratic+Seminar

Student Observation Checklist: Rubric:

//When I am evaluating your Socratic Seminar participation, I ask the following questions about participants. Did they….// Speak loudly and clearly? Cite reasons and evidence for their statements? Use the text to find support? Listen to others respectfully? Stick with the subject? Talk to each other, not just to the leader? Paraphrase accurately? Ask for help to clear up confusion? Support each other? Avoid hostile exchanges? Question others in a civil manner? Seem prepared?

**Dialogue vs.** ** Debate ** > Debate is oppositional: two opposing sides try to prove each other wrong. > Debate defends assumptions as truth. > Debate creates a close-minded attitude, a determination to be right. > In debate, one submits one's best thinking and defends it against challenge to show that it is right. > Debate calls for investing wholeheartedly in one's beliefs. > In debate, one searches for weaknesses in the other position. > Debate rebuts contrary positions and may belittle or deprecate other participants. > Debate assumes a single right answer that somebody already has. > Debate demands a conclusion.
 * Dialogue is collaborative: multiple sides work toward shared understanding.
 * In dialogue, one listens to understand, to make meaning, and to find common ground. In debate, one listens to find flaws, to spot differences, and to counter arguments.
 * Dialogue enlarges and possibly changes a participant's point of view.
 * Dialogue creates an open-minded attitude: an openness to being wrong and an openness to change.
 * In dialogue, one submits one's best thinking, expecting that other people's reflections will help improve it rather than threaten it.
 * Dialogue calls for temporarily suspending one's beliefs.
 * In dialogue, one searches for strengths in all positions.
 * Dialogue respects all the other participants and seeks not to alienate or offend.
 * Dialogue assumes that many people have pieces of answers and that cooperation can lead to a greater understanding.
 * Dialogue remains open-ended.

**Dialogue is characterized by:**
 * suspending judgment
 * examining our own work without defensiveness
 * exposing our reasoning and looking for limits to it
 * communicating our underlying assumptions
 * exploring viewpoints more broadly and deeply
 * being open to disconfirming data
 * approaching someone who sees a problem differently not as an adversary, but as a colleague in common pursuit of better solution.