Tuesday, January 22
Due Wednesday, January 23
1. Do the 8 questions on the Socratic Seminar today, pasted below if you need them.
2. Personal Narrative Final Draft! Bring in the draft of your personal narrative that I gave back last week with final edits. Revise your draft based on these comments and bring your final final final draft on a flash drive or sent to me by email at sbarlow@lrei.org. I must have an electronic copy of it!
3. Decide what piece of creative writing you would like to submit to the LREI Literary Magazine. Bring in a PROOFREAD, EDITED paper version and a flash drive with a digital version if its something other than the personal narrative (“Theme for English B” poem, or any other poems from this year). If you cannot decide between a few options, bring them all in. We will spend Wednesday’s Writing Workshop preparing these submissions.
:)
*******************************************************************************************
8th Grade Core Name________________
I Have a Dream: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Socratic Seminar
Following our Socratic Seminar today in class, please answer the following questions, thoughtfully and completely ON A SEPARATE SHEET OF PAPER, typed or handwritten legibly. You may use note form as long as I can follow it.
1. Reminder: good discussions are NOT simply built by talking. What are good discussion skills? It might help you to remember a discussion that you found engaging and interesting. Describe what is happening in a good discussion. Be specific.
2. As you all know, body language and tone of voice communicate a lot during discussions. Think about:
Body language: eye rolling, eye contact, slouching, sitting up, sighing, nodding, twirling pencil/pen, inviting hand gestures, arms crossed, fidgeting, etc.
Tone of Voice: questioning, interested, frustrated, hostile, calm, debating, argumentative, discussion-oriented, yelling over others, allowing others to take the floor from you by lowering your voice, etc.
Using body language and tone of voice as your markers, characterize, separately, the first and the second circles’ vibe, mood, or tone. Use specifics.
3. If you got feedback on your discussion style, what was it? How did you feel about it? If you wanted to respond, but could not, what would you have said?
4. Based on your experience during the seminar, evaluate your OWN discussion skills. What is working well? What needs work?
5. Give yourself a grade (a number 1-4) on your participation in today’s seminar and justify it.
6. If you participated in the first seminar on the Lincoln/Douglas debates, what did you notice that was different about this one? What did you do differently (if anything)?
7. What did you like about this Socratic Seminar? Dislike? Why?
8. The things that the outer circle watches for are the things that help us in deepening and building better discussions. What did you think about today’s outer circle jobs? List the suggestions you can think of for other jobs. It may help you to think about what it is we, as a group or as individuals, need to work on.