Abstract:

Bill Ferriter, a North Carolina NBCT, writes that Copeland’s book, about using the method of Socratic dialogue to foster meaningful classroom conversations, includes actual transcripts of discussions from Copeland’s students.

Citation: Copeland, M. (2005). Socratic circles: Fostering critical and creative thinking in middle and high school. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers

Full Text:

By Matt Copeland
2005 (163 pp./paperback)
Stenhouse Publishers
ISBN: 1-57100-394-5
$17.50

Reviewed by Bill Ferriter
Salem Middle School
Wake County Public School System

I have always believed that true learning in our classrooms
depended on engaging children in powerful conversations. Education
is typically passive, I thought. All too often, children are
merely recipients, rather than creators of, knowledge. The
most exciting moments in my career have been when children
have had their own thinking challenged and have been forced
to refine and revise what they hold to be true.

But creating and facilitating these types of learning experiences
is not an easy task. First, having the confidence to commit
classroom time to such activities in our numbers-driven accountability
culture is difficult. What, I sometimes wonder, is being left
out when I spend time on dialogue? Will students perform well
on state-mandated tests if powerful conversations are a cornerstone
of our classroom?

Furthermore, how can I structure classroom conversations to guarantee that
students are challenged? What is my role as a teacher? What
role do students play? How can I assess student growth, both
in content and in skill as participants?

Each of these questions is skillfully answered in a new Stenhouse
book written by Matt Copeland. Socratic Circles: Fostering
Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High School is
a valuable tool for all teachers interested in making powerful
conversations a part of their classrooms.

Copeland, a high school English teacher in Topeka, Kansas, grew frustrated
with the apathy that his students demonstrated early in his
career. "I wanted a strategy that asked them to probe below
the surface meaning of what they read, one that allowed them
to think creatively and critically, one that stimulated discussion
in my classroom that made learning active and engaging, rather
than an exercise in passivity."

What he "discovered" was a system of instruction that has been
around for thousands of years — Socratic seminars.
"Socratic circles change the way individuals read, think,
discuss, write and act...but perhaps more important," he
writes, "is the reality that Socratic circles foster in
students a new way of looking at the world around them.
One of the keys to creating lifelong learners — students
who continue the quest for knowledge and understanding long
after they have exited our classrooms — is contained
within the magic of Socratic circles."

After being introduced to Socratic seminars, Copeland has "modified
and adapted" the practice over the past five years, creating
a process that meets the needs of his students. His book
makes this process public, amplifying its power.

Socratic Circles starts with an examination of the benefits of student conversations.
This background is invaluable to teachers who are concerned
about the consequences that committing time to seminars may
have on student achievement. Copeland details the benefits
that seminar participation has on student academic and social
skills. This material is both convincing and motivating.

The rest of Copeland's book provides a detailed overview of how
Socratic seminars "look" in the classroom. Chapters cover
topics ranging from how to prepare your students for dialogue
to assessing seminar participation. Perhaps most significant
are individual chapters on the teacher's role in facilitating
the work of the inner and outer circle during seminars. Copeland
provides specific instructions and ideas, along with templates
of documents, which make the seminar process easy to implement.

Also included are transcripts from actual seminars that have happened
in Copeland's classroom. These records of conversations effectively
illustrate the different roles that teachers and students
play in Socratic Circles. Copeland offers commentary detailing
what is happening and why it is significant, helping readers
to visualize a process that they may be unfamiliar, and initially
uncomfortable, with.

Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle
and High School has changed my instructional practice.
While I always understood the importance of powerful conversations
in my classroom, I had never formalized this process. Socratic
Circles introduced a structure for dialogue that I could
understand and begin to use immediately. As a result, my
students have had more opportunities to be challenged and
to think creatively. With Copeland's help, my students are
no longer simply passive recipients of information. They've
become the creators of knowledge that I've always wanted
them to be.

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