Utilizing Socratic Seminars in the Math Classroom

“Socratic Seminars are perfect for a math classroom!!!” 

-Socrates

On Monday, July 10, Mollie and I took our love of Socratic seminars on the road to downtown Fort Worth, where CAMT was taking place!  

Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching (CAMT) is an annual Texas conference for K-12 mathematics teachers. The conference is sponsored jointly by the Texas Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the Texas Association of Supervisors of Mathematics, and the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America.  


Mollie submitted our registration during the summer of 2016.  We were both teaching at separate campuses in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD and had embraced a 21st century classroom!  With each unit we tried to implement a Socratic seminar and were continuously amazed at how much our learners grew in their mathematical knowledge and confidence in the classroom.  

In April 2017, we received our proposal acceptance stating that our session, "Utilizing Socratic Seminars in the Math Classroom," was chosen and that we'd be presenting in a room that held 100+ people.  To say we were excited was an understatement!  We couldn't wait to share the story of our learners and the impact on student learning that Socratic seminars provided.  

Our session description

We know what you’re thinking. Socrates did not say that. You are correct; however, Socratic seminars are an excellent way to get your students to use of academic language, think critically, and collaborate with others. Come see multiple ways of implementing Socratic seminars into math, brainstorm ideas with mathematical minds, and participate in an example seminar yourself!

As fellow educators entered the room, we shared this article, Teacher Collaboration: When Belief Systems Collide  We chose this article because it's vital that everyone understand and accept each other for what strengths we bring to our departments!  Educators began to annotate their texts, as well as ask questions about the session.  More specifically they wanted to know how this can be used in a math classroom.

We were excited with their enthusiasm, but wanted for each participate to experience a Socratic seminar from a learners' perspective.  It's vital that we understand how our learners' feel when it comes to implementing new instructional strategies.  

It took some coaching on our part to get everyone engaged and participating, but pretty soon, everyone was actively engaged!  The energy that came from this group of teachers served as a reminder of why we chose to "give up" a day of summer vacation and share our love of learning with others.  

 

Upon completing their first Socratic seminar we had learners reflect by doing a quick write, whether it was on Twitter or a notecard.  One participant was moved to tears due to receiving such positive feedback from the group at her table.  

How will you use what you learned during your summer professional learning to impact the learners of your classroom?  

Embracing an I Can Attitude & It's Impact on Learning

Socratic Seminars in a Math Classroom

For the past 3 three years I have had the privilege of being a member of an AVID site team.  During this time, I truly embraced the AVID mindset and implemented the instructional strategies I learned during my weeklong AVID Summer Institute.  One of my favorite learning opportunities is Socratic seminars!

Throughout this school year, I have focused on helping our learners move away from having a fixed mindset towards embracing a growth mindset.  From various posters on our walls to our Mindset Mondays, our learners are beginning to see the impact of having a growth mindset in our classroom.

As we began 2017 together, as a staff, on Tuesday morning, a comment made by a coworker left me thinking of how we, as "math" learners, can defy the odds....the odds of "only reading word problems in math."

Articles were passed out in all classes on Wednesday and the annotating began!  I'm forever grateful for the help of our ELL support in 2nd period, who took the time to find articles in Spanish for our ELL students.

Articles were posted in Google Classroom for ALL learners to access

We spent our time together on Wednesday and Thursday reading our articles, writing 5 word summaries, discussing new vocabulary and most of all learning through text, other than a word problem!

Thursday evening, I spent the time setting up our room with an inner circle of 9 desks and then strategically placing the other desks.  Several ideas of how to group the kids were circling around in my head, when I thought of the learners of 2nd period.

Second period is a 29 member family that is made up of 9 girls and 20 boys; A 29 member family that consists of 18 students born in Texas, 2 born out of state and 9 born in another country; A 29 member family that embraces our diversity, respects each other and most of all encourages each other as we embrace 21st century skills, while learning our 8th grade math standards.  

These 29 learners were the inspiration for the way learners were grouped for this activity.  Because our focus for this seminar, as well as our classroom, I translated, "Yes, you can!" into the 10 languages that represent the families of Room 27.  The smiles on my learners faces beamed with pride when I shared my reasoning behind our name tents.  

Meet the stars of the show, the learners of 2nd period!  

(I apologize in advance for how loud I am, as I was coaching them through their first Socratic seminar)

As our day progressed and learners filtered in and out of our classroom, I found myself becoming more and more proud of our Falcons.  Learners were so excited about doing a Socratic seminar, as they had previous experience in other classes.  What I found was this was something completely new to them, to think in a "new" way in math.  Most groups were hesitant to begin the conversation, but with coaching and guided questions, they each began to share their thoughts, supported with their annotated text, as well as their interactive notebook!  

Learners brought their own questions and I brought mine!  Here are some of the questions, I asked:

• Why do you think we put a “wall” up in math?
• Why do we automatically think that mistakes are negative?
• Do you agree that math is too much answering and not enough learning?
• Which grading scale (see below) would you prefer to show you are learning?

As we moved throughout the seminar, learners moved between the inner and outer circle.  While a member of the inner circle, each learner represented their group and shared the information they discussed, as well as agreed or disagreed with the other members in the conversation.  Outer circle members used Today's Meet.  

Using Today's Meet, offered a way for the shy learner to still feel safe when sharing his/her ideas, as well as asking questions.  The other circle members typed on Today's Meet, rather than using sticky notes.  I kept hearing discussions on how cool it was that they were using this website!  In order for all participants to know what was being shared on Today's Meet, I had it reflected on our board.  

We used our CHAMPs to establish proper etiquette when participating in a discussion, both as a speaker and as a listener.  One thing I wish I would have made more of an effort to talk about was how to address others when you are responding to their comments.  As the day went on, I remembered to do this, as you can see on the Today's Meet channel!

Several teachers and administrators came to watch our Socratic seminars, which made the day even more meaningful.  Throughout the day, I too found areas I could improve on, which made each class period, that much more powerful!  We were all learning together, which is how every classroom should be.  

As each class period ended, learners were given a page to reflect on our learning experience.  I'm already looking forward to what they learned, as well as what they wish.  

Have you ever tried a Socratic seminar in your math classroom?  What impact do you see Socratic seminars having on your instruction, as well as the learning in your classroom?  Stayed tuned for learner and teacher reflections on our Socratic seminar!