Class full of silent students
One of my classes I teach has only silent students in it. I find it very difficult to get any interaction going with them and it is hard to know how much of the information they are retaining. Even when called upon most of them will mumble an answer to me, or stall by looking through their notes. The class only consists of 6 students so it is all ready a fairly small group. any suggestions?
Yes... I have had this too. I find that humor and breaking them up into groups to do exercises can really help. Seems like usually they are all afraid of what people will think of them if they speak up.
I, too, have a small class (8 students) and all are silent students. They introduced themselves, we sit in small group arrangements, I stand/walk to teach, then sit to discuss - arghhhh none of it was working?!
Then I realized ...it might be early-afternoon-coma! Now, *they* stand and walk-around! Sometimes I have them teach sections of material and we all discuss; sometimes I set up learning stations for them to move through; relay/race games on the board; and sometimes we leave the classroom for a change of scenery.
So far, so good!
When I begin my 5 week course with my new class I do an ICEBREAKER to which each student has to state their name,what program they are entering and something about themselves then the next student has to repeat what the previous student stated and so fourth. I found that in doing this introduction it helps the student to get to know each other and they also realize that they are all here to do the same thing.
I think arranging the students chairs in a circle is a wonderful idea. I would also try lecturing to them while staying seated. Sometimes it is very intimidating to students to stand in front of them and lecture to them but by doing it while sitting in the circle with them might allow them to be more comfortable in participating.
I try to make sure that all of my students feel comfortable asking questions and making comments. I do this by having everyone introduce themselves on the first day and then by letting them know that all of my lectures are interactive and that they can chim in at any time during my lectures. I also have students read from their books while I am lecturing. I like to turn down the lights when I lecture also because this makes students more comfortable in speaking out loud.
I rarely have a class that is full of the silent type. However, I do have one right now. I will tell them just how quiet they are and they all chuckle. I am on my third week in the course and they have started to open up a bit more. However, because the class is so small, I think they might be intimidated to get answers wrong or say the wrong thing for fear of being judged by their peers. There are too few students tp break up into smaller groups, so we will have to pull our chairs together and make our class a bit less formal so they are more comfortable.
I just started a new semester, so the students are new to me and I am new to them. I like to daily attendance until I know everyone's name, but this is hardly necessary in your class. I wonder if arranging the chairs in a circle, and changing the format to a discussion group would democraticize the classroom. Having an instructor stand in front of you and ask questions can be pretty intimidating.
