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Evaluating student participation during a Socratic Seminar can be challenging.  It would be a mistake to assume that the most talkative students are necessarily the most active participants or, conversely, that the reticent students are not actively participating.  It may be the case that the quieter students are taking in ideas, thinking deeply about them, and mentally synthesizing the contributions of their classmates. In order to assess how active and mentally engaged students have been during a seminar, it is important to provide them with time to reflect on the dialogue and consider how it has shaped their thinking.  Click here for a "post-Seminar" set of reflective questions that can be adapted in any number of ways:

Socratic Seminar Reflection
(Word document)

The following rubrics provide criteria by which student engagement and inquiry may be assessed.  Teachers may also consider having students use the rubric to help facilitate their reflection on their Socratic Seminar dialogue: