Socratic Seminars with Mote

Guest post from Mote Ambassador - Alex Isaacs, of Red Bank Middle School, NJ.

Boosts inclusivity with increased preparation before a Socratic seminar takes place.
Allows learners to interact with their classmates to provide peer feedback.
Offers meaningful opportunities for learners to reflect individually and on a group basis.

In Socratic seminars, students are often reticent to share their thoughts and ideas in the fish bowl. Listening to pre-recorded mote responses allows students to be more prepared for the Socratic seminar and could cause less vocal students to participate more in the actual class activity.
The additional preplanning and reflecting on peer responses will allow more meaningful discussion to take place in the student-led portions of the activity. As a result, learners will be in a better position to be active facilitators in the learning process.
Offer students degrees of choice with different prompts to spark conversation and peer-to-peer feedback to take place in and out of the classroom.