Socratic Seminar

This is a technique for ensuring quality discussions that I experienced in an AP seminar. I am interested in philosophy but by no means an expert, and I found myself wondering about the name of the technique. I remember the Socratic Method as posing a series of questions that make the discussion partner dig deeper and possibly contradict him- or herself. I googled the term and found a good overview here: Univ. of Chicago Law School  

This discussion technique does not aim at exposing fallacies or inconsistencies. Instead, it encourages foreign language students to speak and practice target vocabulary or phrases. This could easily be adjusted to other content areas. 

Prior to the Socratic Seminar, students prepare strips of paper that contain the phrases or terms to be practiced. These are placed in the middle of the circle so that they are easily visible. In our AP seminar, we used phrases to initiate or respond to questions and to state one's opinion, agreement, or disagreement. 

Students are assigned to sit in either an inner or an outer circle. Kids in the inner circle participate in the discussion; each student in the outer circle is assigned to observe one of the speakers. The observers have check-off sheets with items such as "makes a contribution, uses target vocab/phrase, refers to the text/film etc, asks a question, agrees or disagrees, integrates another discussion member, makes eye contact" (just like in Brianne's post) etc. Observers also note any undesirable behavior as well as the most interesting thing their partner said. The discussion begins the same way as in Susan's contribution. After one round, students switch roles.