Socrates quotes: starting to think!
- I know that I know nothing.
- The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Wisdom begins in wonder.
- I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
- To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.
- True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.
- I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.
- Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.
- The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me.
- Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.
A request from the Primary Years tutorial - Socratic Circles to enhance creative/critical thinking
A Socratic Circle (also known as a Socratic
Seminar) is a pedagogical approach based on the Socratic method and uses a dialogic
approach to understand information in a text. Its systematic procedure is used
to examine a text through questions and answers founded on the beliefs that all
new knowledge is connected to prior knowledge, that all thinking comes from
asking questions, and that asking one question should lead to asking further
questions.A Socratic Circle is not a debate. The goal of this activity is to have
participants work together to construct meaning and arrive at an answer, not
for one student or one group to “win the argument”
Teachers use Socratic Circles in different ways. The structure it takes may
look different in each classroom. While this is not an exhaustive list,
teachers may use one of the following structures to administer Socratic
Seminar:- Inner/Outer Circle or Fishbowl: Students need to be arranged in inner and outer circles. The inner circle engages in discussion about the text. The outer circle observes the inner circle, while taking notes. The outer circle shares their observations and questions the inner circle with guidance from the teacher/facilitator. Students use constructive criticism as opposed to making judgements. The students on the outside keep track of topics they would like to discuss as part of the debrief. Participants of the outer circle can use an observation checklist or notes form to monitor the participants in the inner circle. These tools will provide structure for listening and give the outside members specific details to discuss later in the seminar.[The teacher may also sit in the circle but at the same height as the students.
- Triad: Students are arranged so that each participant (called a “pilot”) in the inner circle has two “co-pilots” sitting behind them on either side. Pilots are the speakers because they are in the inner circle; co-pilots are in the outer circle and only speak during consultation. The seminar proceeds as any other seminar. At a point in the seminar, the facilitator pauses the discussion and instructs the triad to talk to each other. Conversation will be about topics that need more in-depth discussion or a question posed by the leader. Sometimes triads will be asked by the facilitator to come up with a new question. Any time during a triad conversation, group members can switch seats and one of the co-pilots can sit in the pilot’s seat. Only during that time is the switching of seats allowed. This structure allows for students to speak, who may not yet have the confidence to speak in the large group. This type of seminar involves all students instead of just the students in the inner and outer circles.
- Simultaneous Seminars: Students are arranged in multiple small groups and placed as far as possible from each other. Following the guidelines of the Socratic Seminar, students engage in small group discussions. Simultaneous seminars are typically done with experienced students who need little guidance and can engage in a discussion without assistance from a teacher/facilitator. According to the literature, this type of seminar is beneficial for teachers who want students to explore a variety of texts around a main issue or topic. Each small group may have a different text to read/view and discuss. A larger Socratic Seminar can then occur as a discussion about how each text corresponds with one another. Simultaneous Seminars can also be used for a particularly difficult text. Students can work through different issues and key passages from the text.
These Youtubes give further insight to theuse of socratic circles in the primary classroom
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/Practically-Primary/259841817.html
