Submission from Education Proclamation: I am an English teacher and use socratic circles as “class discussion” on the novels we are reading.  I break the class in groups, sometimes randomly and sometimes by which voicethread they chose to respond to for homework (check out for an example: http://voicethread.com/?#u2382293.b3085259.i16345497 ).  I do not sit in the circle at all- it is completely student driven.  Students who are not in the circle are contributing to the conversation by posting to a twitter feed that I project up on the wall where everyone can read.  The first time I did this I used a rubric and evaluated them, but I have an issue with evaluation in general and once the students understood the expectations, I no longer graded them specifically on their performance in the circle.   What I really like about the circle is that it gives students opportunities and encourages them when they wouldn’t do so in a whole group discussion.  One suggestion that I have heard to improve circles is to have students generate a list of questions prior to the circle to avoid “dead air” but, while I do expect my students to come prepared with talking points,  I do not have them write a list of questions to pull from, because I feel like, as uncomfortable as it may be at first, the students use that time to think and get deeper into the novel than they would if they had a pile of questions to plow through.   One major issue that I am trying to resolve with Socratic circles, is that because it is completely student centered- and I am not involved in the dialog, I wonder if they are missing points- but I wonder if that is okay…  For example when my students were discussing The Odyssey  they completely missed the fact that Chyrbids and Scylla was like being between “a rock and a hard place” but they took their discussion to talk about Penelope- I am continuing to find a balance in my socratic circles and always trying new ways to get my students to take themselves to where I want them to be…

Unlearning School: I think your impulse to want to jump in from time to time is warranted.  They will fly far and wide without direction unless you step in and re-direct.  I think teacher removing self from circle happens after they’ve begun to master the things you’ve taught them, but I still haven’t figured that part out.  It’s always a work in progress - that’s the fun part!