Facilitating Socratic Seminars is a great way to teach material to students.  By Socratic Seminars, I mean a teaching methodology that promotes the free and open exchange of ideas.  Socratic Seminars would be ideal in an English/Literature course.  Indeed, students should critically analyze novels, short stories, and poems through this teaching technique.  In History classes, teachers can assign an historical text (Declaration of Independence, "I Have a Dream" speech, excerpts from the Lincoln-Douglas debates, etc.) for his/her students to read, and then conduct a seminar based on the reading.  I assigned my students to read an excerpt from Tocqueville's DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA.  It was a weighty reading, but my students rose to the challenge.  It is critical that the facilitator (teacher or student) open the conversation with a meaningful question.  The question cannot be too broad or too narrow.  Furthermore, the teacher needs to make sure that his/her students are ready to participate in a seminar.  Pre-seminars and regular coaching are crucial.  Socratic seminars call for the best in people: intellectual courage, listening skills, patience, public speaking, humility, and teamwork--great qualities for a teacher to witness!