How to get quiet people to talk?
This semester's class is a bit different from previous years. In a class of 14, only one will talk. I haven't put up much of a fight -- yet -- because when they are organized in small groups, talking about businesses they would like to, and maybe will, start, THEN they'll talk. To one another. But I need them to throw their thoughts out there for the benefit of everyone in the room. Including themselves. After all, nothing crystallizes an idea quite like speaking it aloud.Now, how to get them to open up? Well, I CAN remind them that "class participation" is worth 20% of their final grade, and that many of them are currently failing that aspect of the class. Which means the best grade they can hope for is probably a "B-minus." That's the "stick" option. But I need some "carrot" options as well. After all, like George Carlin said,
Most people work just hard enough to not get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.Likewise, students will at times work just hard enough to pass and be rewarded just enough to fulfill a requirement.
Anyway, here is my informal list of techniques for drawing them out:
- Remind them of their (individual) importance. We cannot all learn effectively from just one or two sources. The learning process is a community process.
- Ask leading questions. Make them feel like they know the answer, not like the answer is being fed to them. (Yeah, right. Like I KNOW the answers.)
- Play Bloom's Taxonomy: make them activate their prior knowledge. Every day something we learned long ago is called upon to enhance something we're doing now. It's up to us to recognize how to apply it.
- Don't use up all the icebreakers in the first week.
- Take advantage of brainstorming exercises.
- Take advantage of role-playing exercises.
Labels: rhetoric
posted by Ron @ 1:41 PM
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1 Comments:
You may wish to try teaching online in part or whole. This is one way to 'give' everyone in your class a 'voice.'
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