Technically, teachers are not supposed to be a part of the circle, but as you can see in my image, I put myself at the top, closest to the board. While you are drawing or projecting the circle, have students do a quick prewrite (You can download my Speedy Starters in this pack) Be sure to sign up for my Building Book Love Letter here to get a list of Socratic Seminar starters and the full set of directions and ideas for this ELA activity. You can choose to gamify this discussion activity any more by allowing blocking, passing, goals points, etc.

You can complete the question for them and they answer it OR have them complete the question and toss it to someone else to answer it. When they catch it, they can call out any question in their vision on the ball (no turning the ball around). Have students stand up in a circle and toss the ball around. Write Socratic Seminar question starters on the ball (see picture)

Here’s a cheap soccer ball on Amazon: Soccer Ball (affiliate link) It can be used with any text, and the gist is this: This has been one of my most popular strategies of the years and rightly so! It’s a great tool to have on hand and toss around when students start to lose focus or drift off during reading time.

Transition bingo classroom