Think Like Socrates
Using Questions to Invite Wonder and Empathy Into the Classroom, Grades 4-12
Corwin Teaching Essentials
The key to creating wonder and empathy in class? Questions!
Socrates believed in the power of questions rather than the efficiency of lecturing his students. And yet, if we revere Socrates as one of the greatest teachers in history, how did we get so far away from his method of inquiry? Shanna Peeples, 2015 National Teacher of the Year, is here to flip the script and show you how teachers can create a welcoming and engaging atmosphere that encourages student questions and honors their experiences. This resource provides
- Practical strategies for creating a classroom that runs on dialogue, curiosity, inquiry, and respect
- An enhancement to your existing curriculum, regardless of content area or grade level, with examples and advice from award-winning teachers
- Questions of increasing depth paired with sample texts to increase student engagement with your content
- Step-by-step lessons for generating and using students’ questions as a way of assessing their thinking, and helping them guide that thinking into new learning aligned to state standards
- Lesson extensions for English language learners, special education students, and gifted and talented students
- Writing suggestions, in-class debate questions, and scoring rubrics for each content area
- Recommended multimedia texts grouped by big questions
- Detailed protocols for using inquiry with adults as a base for Professional Learning Communities, for guiding staff meetings, and for creating inquiry groups around common areas of practice
Your students’ deepest wonderings can point toward learning experiences that allow them to practice the work of citizenship grounded in empathy. Let the questions begin!
Free resources
Applying Leveled Big Questions
In this lesson from Think Like Socrates, author Shanna Peeples provides complex texts for various grade levels and includes critical questions for debate and discussion amongst your students.
How to Create and Meet in Writing Groups
In the following pages from Think Like Socrates, discover a new way to foster group writing with your students. Featured is a step-by-step lesson plan with directions on how to use.
"Shanna Peeples (2015 National Teacher of the Year) speaks a voice that's not heard often enough in the places where critical decisions are made about education—the voice of the experienced, devoted, and passionate teacher. As a nation, we should never make educational policy without asking whether it will support pedagogical practices of the sort this book advocates. If students learned to 'think like Socrates,' it would benefit them, their workplaces and communities, and our democracy in countless ways. May this book find tens of thousands of readers who want to put Shanna's well-tested insights into practice!"
"Excellent writing and a wealth of inspiring examples from distinguished educators make this possibly the strongest Corwin book I have read in the past 10 years."
"Equal parts affirming and challenging, this book confirms why so much of what feels like good teaching is also messy, emotional, and personal. Peeples is a master teacher and a spectacular writer, and here we have a book that is evidence of both. This is a book that respects the intelligence of teachers. I plan on sharing this book with every teacher I work with."
"Allowing students to pursue their own questions is upheld as a powerful and driving force in learning. Furthermore, the stories in this book are personal and powerful. They helped get my mind and heart involved and ready to read on. Teachers will be able to recognize their own students in these stories."
"Peeples’s book is important and relevant. It covers topics that educators are grappling with and provides authentic examples that will connect with them. Both novice and master teachers will be able to put these protocols and lesson plans into practice immediately. This is a resource that both administrators and teachers will revisit over and over again."
"Great for staff development, new implementation of Socratic seminar, and enhancing the craft of inquiry. This is a must-have for AVID school sites in particular."
“If you wish your classroom privileged students’ questions, fostered authentic discussion and relationships that support discourse, then Think Like Socrates is a must read. Shanna Peoples provides simple but powerful structures to get started but also to make such an environment thrive.”
"Shanna Peeples has dedicated this book to her students and described it as a 'Love Letter'. It is. It is also a superb and powerful resource for educators committed to designing and developing learning cultures of curiosity and meaning-filled inquiry.
Socrates said 'Wisdom begins in wonder'. As human beings , questions are our North Star ; we walk in their direction; so we must ensure they are not too small for our imagination. By grounding learning and teaching in student -generated questions, we invite children to develop agency over their own learning and choose the questions they wish to “walk”throughout their lives.
Adroitly and wisely integrating current research on learning and teaching for deep understanding ,with her own personal experiences in fostering Socratic thinking within her students ,her colleagues, and herself, Peeples has generously gifted us with a new narrative and a new map for inviting curiosity, wonder and empathy into the classroom, by design. This book is a treasure."
"Teachers and students are parched for authentic and significant conversations in today’s schools. Through insightful innovations on an ancient tradition of posing thoughtful questions, Shanna Peeples offers here a practical guide for building wisdom and meaningful learning in today’s classrooms. This book will be an asset for deep inquiry among pre-service and in-service educators alike."
"If you are looking for a pathway to a remarkable student-centered classroom, Shanna teaches you how you can use questions to connect with your students, garner deeper engagement, and excavate the deep intellectual thoughts that are within our students, yet seem so difficult to uproot. Think Like Socrates is a practical yet soulful book, one that speaks with honesty and compassion to the power of questions and how they can transform your classroom."
