Rachel Penick

Block 5

This Socratic seminar was better than the last one. I felt like I understood how to connect
my opinion to not only the text, but also outside sources. I described how the reason the woman
got an abortion was to make her husband happy. She didn’t want to cause conflict. But, in the
end I don’t think they will stay together because she will envy him for leading her to give up her
child. I backed my ideas up with textual evidence. According to my other group members, I
spoke clearly and respectfully. I also brought new ideas and new point of views to the discussion.
When I disagreed with someone’s point, I provided my evidence for why I believe what I
believe, and I tried to get them to see my point of view. When I agreed with someone, I provided
more evidence for their argument. I need to improve on looking for a deeper meaning in the text.
My textual evidence was more surface level and in turn the class didn’t discover a deeper
meaning in the text through my contributions.
My group performed well in this Socratic seminar. We all improved from last Socratic
seminar. Everyone expressed their opinions and used text evidence to support it. Many people
had different opinions, but no one was disrespected for their opinion. Everyone listened to each
other and argued respectfully. It was interesting when Max said that he thinks the couple will
break up in the future because they are not stable enough. But then Evelyn said that she thinks
they will stay together because their love is so strong. This argument went back and forth, and
many other people joined in. They argued respectfully but also got their opinion across. I learned
a lot from this because I saw the story from both sides and in the end couldn’t decide which side
I was on. Also, the outer circle helped me to realize what I needed to improve on and also what I
need to keep doing for future Socratic seminars.