Tuesdays With Morrie- Socratic Seminar Reflections

      Throughout the time that we were reading Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom, we were having Socratic Seminars. Now that we have finished the book, I am going to reflect on all of the seminars that we have had. 

What trends did you notice with yourself and your personal goals for each seminar? 

I noticed that throughout the seminars, I started to talk more and more. I noticed that the more I wrote on my guide, the more I participated, even if what I said had nothing to do with what was on my guide. My personal goals changed also throughout the seminars. The first seminar, I said that I wanted to participate more. Then, the second seminar, I said that I participated a lot, and so I wanted to work on engaging people in the conversations who may not have added enough. The third seminar, I thought that I may have participated a bit too much, and I wanted to work on not interrupting people when they were trying to talk. I did try to be mindful of how much I was talking, and this last seminar I definitely tried to engage people in the conversation, which I think I did well. 

What trends did you notice with the class for each seminar? 

I noticed that a lot of the time, the same people were not adding enough, and the same people were talking a lot. I noticed that the people who only added one or two things to their guide didn't add anything to the conversation, and if they did, they only participated once. The people who added many things to their guide, were the people who were participating a lot.

What did you notice that helped or hindered a specific seminar?

I found that the more interesting the questions were, the more people participated. During the second seminar, I asked, "Would you want to know your death date?" And that sparked a really interesting conversation, because a lot of people had a lot of opinions and a lot of really good points. Today, someone asked, "How would you want to die? If you had the choice." That also sparked a really interesting conversation, which ended with Lorin saying that she would want to die on death row, but we don't have to get into that. I noticed that what hindered the seminars was people talking over each other. Because of the no raising hands rule, a lot of people would get cut off in what they were trying to say, and then when that person was finished, someone else would chime in, and the person who was trying to talk originally, is ignored. That was something that happened a lot, but I think that by the fourth seminar, things went really well. And Carter brought the crackers, so that's great.