By Patrick Mattimore

“STA

NDARDIZED T

ESTS

ARE NEEDED T

O

MEASURE S

TUDENT

ACHIEVEM

ENT”

Let’s SOAPSTone!

Speaker

• Who is the voice that tells the story?

Let’s SOAPSTone!

Occasion (Motivation)

• What is the time and place of the piece – the context that encouraged the writing to happen?

• Why was the author motivated to write this?

Let’s SOAPSTone!

Audience

• Who is the audience – the (group) of readers to whom this piece of directed?

Let’s SOAPSTone!

Purpose

• Why was this text written?

• “What does the speaker want the audience to think or do as a result of reading this text?”

Let’s SOAPSTone!

Subject

• What are the general topic, content, and ideas contained in the text?

Let’s SOAPSTone!

Tone

• What is the attitude of the author?

By Monty Neill

“STA

NDARDIZED T

ESTS

ARE UNFA

IR A

ND

HARMFUL”

Let’s SOAPSTone!

Speaker

• Who is the voice that tells the story?

Let’s SOAPSTone!

Occasion (Motivation)

• What is the time and place of the piece – the context that encouraged the writing to happen?

• Why was the author motivated to write this?

Let’s SOAPSTone!

Audience

• Who is the audience – the (group) of readers to whom this piece of directed?

Let’s SOAPSTone!

Purpose

• Why was this text written?

• “What does the speaker want the audience to think or do as a result of reading this text?”

Let’s SOAPSTone!

Subject

• What are the general topic, content, and ideas contained in the text?

Let’s SOAPSTone!

Tone

• What is the attitude of the author?

Socratic Seminar!

Dialogue versus debate

Dialogue is…

• Collaborative

• About understanding

• Listening for deeper meaning

• Keeping an open mind

• About respecting participants

Debate is…

• About proving others wrong

• Close-minded

• About defending beliefs/assumptions

• Belittling or demeaning others

• Having one right answer

**The purpose of

Socratic Seminar is to expand our ideas

and engage in dialogue,

not to debate and try to come

to a conclusion*

*

The texts

• Chosen for richness in ideas, issues, and values

• Used to stimulate conversation

• Raises important questions

“Standardized

Tests Are

Needed to

Measure

Student

Achievement”

AND

“Standardized

Tests Are

Harmful and

Unfair”

The questions

• No right/wrong answers

• Leads back to the text to evaluate, speculate, define, and clarify issues

• Responses to questions lead to more questions!

Your 2 L2

and 2 L3

Costa

questions

The participants

• Listen actively

• Share your ideas and questions in response to the ideas and questions from others

• Use evidence in the text to support your ideas

That’s

you!

Wait 3,Then me

Socratic Seminar Group Guidelines

Listen

No one can speak while someone else is speaking.

Build

Speakers must try to build on what others say, not debate their views.

Refer to the Text

Speakers must refer directly to the section of the text from which their ideas come rather than making general comments or observations.

Wait 3,Then me

DISCUSSION DEBRIEF

• What ideas did you agree with?

• What ideas did you disagree with?

• What questions were left unanswered?

• What did you contribute to the discussion?

• Who were the top three contributors to the discussion?

• What is your overall evaluation of the seminar?

REFERENCES

http://techpenta.com/hospital/monty-neillhttp://attheagora.blogspot.com/2009/11/figure-drawing-from-1990s.htmlhttp://www.gradethenews.org/commentaries/fairtrials.htm