Socratic Seminars: A Critical Analysis
My hands are shaky and sweaty. My face feels hot. My stomach churning. My heart is pounding and the noises around me just turn to a blur as I try to find something to say. My notes are all there and still I’m drawing a blank. To where is all this unnecessary stress and pain I feel coming from? Well, I’m sitting in the middle of a graded socratic seminar.
To start, graded socratic seminars put a lot of pressure on a person, especially someone who is shy. For one who doesn’t talk particularly a lot it causes anxiety. In the article Socratic seminars silence students, by Kaitie Puryear, she writes, “Grading Socratic Seminars is ridiculous. It puts students under an ungodly amount of pressure.” And I for one agree with her because I experience …show more content…
You have the dominate few people who over power the others where it’s hard to contribute. However, I can focus on the points I will not be getting because of my lack of participation because I am not as talkative as I may seem outside of class when it comes to group speaking. In the article Voices: Typically quiet students suffer in classes with participation grade, by Danielle Bissonette says, “Why should outgoing people rule the world? People often say that we live in a racist, sexist world, but I’d go so far as to argue that we live in an extroverted world where introverts are consistently discriminated against.” In today’s society there is nothing wrong with being an extrovert but on the other hand, being an introvert is seen as a disadvantage. Socratic seminars require one to share ideas and talk in front of a group of people they may be unfamiliar with and therefore, causing a great deal of stress. In the same article Voices: Typically quiet students suffer in classes with participation grade, by Danielle Bissonette she makes a good point when she says, “Class participation is not fair, as it automatically gives an unfair advantage to extroverted students. A shy student could be the brightest in the class, but she will automatically lose up to 30 percent of her grade just because she’s afraid to participate.” To contradict that, when I know a socratic seminar in not graded I find myself contributing
To start, graded socratic seminars put a lot of pressure on a person, especially someone who is shy. For one who doesn’t talk particularly a lot it causes anxiety. In the article Socratic seminars silence students, by Kaitie Puryear, she writes, “Grading Socratic Seminars is ridiculous. It puts students under an ungodly amount of pressure.” And I for one agree with her because I experience …show more content…
You have the dominate few people who over power the others where it’s hard to contribute. However, I can focus on the points I will not be getting because of my lack of participation because I am not as talkative as I may seem outside of class when it comes to group speaking. In the article Voices: Typically quiet students suffer in classes with participation grade, by Danielle Bissonette says, “Why should outgoing people rule the world? People often say that we live in a racist, sexist world, but I’d go so far as to argue that we live in an extroverted world where introverts are consistently discriminated against.” In today’s society there is nothing wrong with being an extrovert but on the other hand, being an introvert is seen as a disadvantage. Socratic seminars require one to share ideas and talk in front of a group of people they may be unfamiliar with and therefore, causing a great deal of stress. In the same article Voices: Typically quiet students suffer in classes with participation grade, by Danielle Bissonette she makes a good point when she says, “Class participation is not fair, as it automatically gives an unfair advantage to extroverted students. A shy student could be the brightest in the class, but she will automatically lose up to 30 percent of her grade just because she’s afraid to participate.” To contradict that, when I know a socratic seminar in not graded I find myself contributing