Socratic Seminar is a good idea in principle, but isn't very effective when put into motion in our class. Kind of like communism. So here's some ideas that could help make it a better experience.
2 Groups isn't the Best
Having two large groups (one spectator group, one discussion group) in a room of 40-something kids is part of the problem, especially with a technique meant for smaller groups. In a discussion with 20 people, it's hard to gather your thoughts and actually share your idea before the subject changes entirely. And unless you are very loud and rude enough to interrupt others repeatedly, getting any point across for people to actually hear, recognize and respond to is nearly impossible. Personally, I think we should be separated into four groups instead (two spectator groups, two discussion groups, two different conversations entirely). Unfortunately, Ms. Ballabio has all ready shot down this idea due to the fact that she can't supervise two discussions at once. I understand that, but what if we actually lead the conversations ourselves without total supervision? As much as I want to stay a child, we are in 8th grade and mostly know how to handle ourselves. This would be beneficial to Ms. Ballabio so she doesn't have to juggle two conversations at once, while providing better and easier discussions for us, and beneficial to the class since the conversation would be more casual. By that I mean able to express ideas without a teacher figuratively and literally breathing down your neck, putting pressure on the student with grades for how many times you participate or look at your notes. Especially since we're all striving for A's and would almost do anything to get a good grade.
Separating Loud and Quiet
Mixing those two groups is an utter mistake, for obvious reasons. As someone who is pretty quiet, I can confirm that we can have good ideas too, but often get drowned out by others that tend to be louder. So separating the group lets, and actually forces, quieter people to share their own ideas and conduct their own discussion. The only problem I can forsee is with the louder people. When you put 10 loud people used to responding a lot in a group with each other, bad things can happen.
Another problem concerning loud and quiet is the "diarrhea-of-the-mouth" types of people, which luckily is rare in our class. These types of people will say anything, whether it actually makes logical sense or not, to get a good grade for participation, such as saying The Raven by Poe relates to the Egyptian son god because "raven" has "Ra" in it. Luckily, in our most recent Seminar, there is no grading sheets for participation, so that has yet to occur again.
*all the stuff about interruptions are assuming that the topic is something interesting and a lot of people have something to say*
