Socratic Seminar - School Start Times Discussion Slides, Organizers, & Handouts
Socratic Seminar - School Start Times Discussion Slides, Organizers, & Handouts: In this engaging Socratic seminar resource, your students will critically examine the question: Should school start times be later in the day? as they analyze multiple perspectives, engage in meaningful discussion, and develop their reasoning skills. This resource includes everything you need to facilitate a structured, student-led Socratic seminar in your classroom. The lesson begins with a short video to hook students and introduce them to the topic, followed by a teacher-led presentation that guides the discussion. Detailed teacher instructions, student handouts, and sentence stems ensure all participants understand the process and feel confident contributing. To help students prepare, the resource includes a thought-provoking article with multiple perspectives, a guided graphic organizer for tracking their thoughts, and a rubric for assessment. A classroom poster builds anticipation before the discussion, and a structured debrief reflection allows students to process their learning afterward. Whether you’re introducing Socratic seminars for the first time or refining students’ discussion skills, this resource provides everything you need for a rich, structured conversation about the impact of a later school start time.
Included in This School Start Times Socratic Seminar Discussion Resource Bundle:
➡️ Detailed Socratic Seminar Teacher Instructions: A comprehensive guide to running a Socratic seminar, including step-by-step instructions, classroom strategies, and tips for facilitating a meaningful discussion.
➡️ Socratic Seminar Teacher Presentation Slides: A 22-slide PowerPoint presentation that walks you through every step of introducing the Socratic Seminar on the question “Should school start times be later in the day?” It includes an overview of the Socratic seminar process, discussion norms, an introduction video, key vocabulary, prompts for each step of the process, round-robin discussion questions, sentence stems, and a structured debrief to close out the lesson.
➡️ Socratic Seminar School Start Times Introduction Video: A short, hand-drawn video by John Spencer from Spencer Education that introduces students to the Socratic seminar question “Should school start times be later in the day?” to hook students and encourage them to consider the prompt from multiple perspectives and angles.
➡️ School Start Times Introduction Video Transcript: A written transcript of the introduction video, ensuring all students can access the content while preparing for the seminar. This is especially useful for students who are hard of hearing or benefit from reading along.
➡️ Should School Start Times Be Later? Classroom Poster: An eye-catching poster designed to spark curiosity and engage students before the discussion begins. Display it on your classroom door or a prominent space in the room to set the tone for the lesson.
➡️ Socratic Seminar Student Handout: A detailed handout that introduces students to the seminar process and expectations. It also includes sentence stems to help students start conversations, show agreement, disagree respectfully, add information, clarify, connect ideas, and reflect.
➡️ School Start Times Article: A thought-provoking article that presents various perspectives on school start times, helping students build background knowledge before the discussion. The article also includes pre-reading vocabulary and academic terms with definitions to support comprehension.
➡️ School Start Times Socratic Seminar Graphic Organizer: A structured organizer that allows students to reflect on the reading, consider both the benefits and drawbacks of a later school start time, formulate their personal stance, and anticipate opposing viewpoints before the seminar begins.
➡️ Socratic Seminar Debrief Response Sheet: A response sheet for students to complete after the Socratic seminar. They will analyze how the conversation unfolded, assess their participation, consider new ideas that emerged, and evaluate the overall group dynamics
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The videos and resources in this resource are for single-classroom use and are not to be uploaded to the Internet in any format without permission from the creators. Please contact prestoplans@gmail.com if you require more information.