Preparing questions in advance for inner circle monitoring

As teacher, presenting an effective initiating question and preparing possible follow-up questions in advance become your invitation for students to become a cohesive team through mutual inquiry.  They experience critical analysis, evaluation and creative thinking in their conversation dialogue.  This becomes a fine line for the facilitator of Socratic dialogue to walk.  Teacher initiated questions should serve to help students discover their capacity for self-direction working together to construct meaning from the text, as opposed to merely determining the one, correct interpretation.

 In his book Socratic Circles, Matt Copeland cites three types of questions you can use as a basis for creating  initiating and follow-up questions with the inner circle. The three types of questions include, “What does the author say?” (facts); “What does the author mean?” (interpretation); and “Is it true?” (evaluation). An example of a factual question which provides a low-risk way for students to begin their conversation could be, “Contrasts and opposites play a large role in this poem.  Can you find examples?” This requires more memory and scanning for information than thinking. 

If necessary, then follow up with a question requiring students to do something with the factual information they have just identified.  “What does the author really mean when she says, ‘I’ve heard that before, but not from anyone I cared about?’”  These questions offer multiple answers with which students can agree and disagree and explain their reasons for their opinions.

Evaluative questions ask students to step outside the text and consider the implications of what is being described: “How would you personally handle a situation similar to the one being described by the author?”  Evaluative questions can be very general in nature: “How is this concept important in our own lives?” [or] “Why is this idea something we should care about?”  Usually precede these with a line of lower-risk questions. 

    

 Next tip, what are some examples of good initiating and follow-up questions?