My Socratic Seminar Experience

  I used to think that speaking during a Socratic Seminar was difficult and frightening. I was worried that if I speak up, my points wouldn’t be related to the topic and that if it wasn’t related to the topic I would be the reason the Socratic Seminar group gets a lower grade than supposed to. It feels like a game where you are passing a ball to everyone in the group and if one of them drops it, EVERYONE loses. That’s what I used to think when I was doing a Socratic Seminar, like I might be the person dropping the ball, somehow making everyone fail. I also thought that it would be hard to come up with certain points to talk about, especially if you are trying to make it up on the spot.

  Now I think that it really doesn’t matter if I say a wrong point during Socratic Seminars, because if I do say something wrong or irrelevant, other members from the Socratic Seminar would help correct me and in a way get me back on track on the conversation, or in a way take my point and add to it. In addition, while correcting me they would get extra marks, as well as me because I will have tried to converse. Furthermore, now I think that when brainstorming for points, it isn’t that hard, because I just have to write down my points as I go along with the conversation or make bullet points, to shorten the sentences.

  I wonder if I knew what I have recently learnt, if I actually would have spoken during the Socratics. I also wonder if the topics were something I was more interested in, if I would have talked or added more points and ideas.