Samantha DeSantis

ERWC Period 3

Ms. Frederick

Socratic Seminar Reflection

On February 2, 2017, I was given the opportunity to participate in a socratic seminar on

the topic of juvenile justice. When I first heard about the seminar, I was extremely anxious to

have to speak in front of the whole class. I prepared plenty of notes and read multiple articles to

better educate myself on the topic. I was in group two, and our question was, How should the

judicial system handle juveniles who commit crimes? What about violent crimes? I only spoke

twice during the seminar, but I feel that what I said was beneficial to the group because I stated

my opinion in a polite way and also brought up questions I had to further the discussion. I was

still nervous to speak, and I would have liked to say more, but I am proud of myself for finding

the courage to say anything at all.

I feel that overall, having this socratic seminar in this high school class is very beneficial

because it prepares me for having to talk in a group discussion type of environment that I will

most likely face at some point in the future. Its good practice to help me get over my anxiety of

talking to a large group of people in this type of setting. I thought it was very interesting what

everybody had to say and many ideas were brought up that I hadnt thought of. Hearing all of

the different arguments definitely made me rethink my stance, and it also helped me to indulge

deeper into the topic and come up with more ideas to talk about. In the future, when we have

another socratic seminar in this class, I think that I could better prepare myself with more notes

so that I feel comfortable talking more often, but having this one also made me realize that it
isnt as intimidating as I thought it would be. Others were very open and kind towards one

another and respected what each individual had to say.