Professional Development School

Melissa Kaye

Professional Development School

Master’s Thesis: Inquiry

Talking in Class

What are ways to encourage students to participate?

During my year as a Professional Development School intern, a program that allows English teacher certification students to gain hands-on experience in the classroom with a mentor, I became especially interested in the topic of class participation. Specifically, I increasingly thought about the question: As a teacher, what strategies can I use to increase meaningful participation?

Participation, to me, is when students demonstrate their engagement with relevant verbal contributions in class. The characteristics of participation that I have identified as a teacher include: a desire to talk or share ideas, making connections, asking questions, brainstorming, and relevant chatter. Other teachers may define participation differently; however, these are the characteristics that have become important to me.

I’ve shaped these characteristics as a teacher, but when I look back at my own high school career, I remember that as a student I didn’t display these descriptors much—in fact, I don’t remember participating much at all. I was in the too-cool-for-school category, much more interested in mastering my tan (I am from Southern California) than mastering the book. But as I think back to that time, I wonder, did my lack of participation stem from a lack of encouragement? Did I make a connection to the material, the teacher, the rest of my classmates? Sure, I was probably most likely engaged with my classmates, but not in the way that a teacher would appreciate.

I am far removed from my high school years, particularly in relation to my fellow interns in the PDS program. This internship is a career change for me, after spending twenty years as a writer and editor. While I may have been a non-speaker during my high school experience, my work and life experience has made me understand the importance of communication skills. For example, you’re not a particularly valued employee if you don’t speak up during meetings. Staff members are expected to bring ideas, questions and critiques to the table. So, after all these years, I now feel it’s important to start practicing this valuable life skill in high school--this skill that can be used in so many ways, not just at work.

While learning a life skill may be an ultimate goal, more immediate goals of participation for me as a teacher center on lessons going on in class. Certain comments, questions or silence could indicate that I need to make a quick change in plan. Depending on what is asked, said or not said, I may have to switch tactics on the spot or I may have to reflect afterwards on what’s working or not working and switch things for the next period. Or, I may have to add another day to the unit to back up and review. In fact, being met with silence is what initially made me interested in the topic of participation as my inquiry.

In the beginning of the year, my mentor, 10th grade English teacher Jen Rand, and I were struck with the quietness of the students in our first period class. Why were they so oddly silent? Even during the morning announcements, they didn’t make a peep. Bell work—an assignment displayed on the overhead designed to get our students thinking and writing—seemed to pacify them even more. They were still extremely quiet. What was the deal with them? Were they tired? Grumpy? Did they need to do some aerobics before starting the day? Was it the class composition; for example, were there students that were intimidated by other students? I ended up making a short iMovie on our questions about first period, and for the iMovie I interviewed a few students who volunteered; I talked to each separately, out in the hallway. I asked them: What makes you want to participate in class?

There was the familiar theme of confidence in the students’ responses:

Sam: When there’s an active teacher that’s enthusiastic about teaching it makes it a lot easier for people to participate. Also, I know I don’t like to be the first one to raise my hands, so when there’s an active class, that makes it a lot easier too.

Jenny: I want to participate in class when I fully understand the material and I feel comfortable answering the question, so I don’t feel self-conscious about what I say if it’s wrong.

Leann: Feeling comfortable in my class definitely helps. Or knowing the answer helps, so I don’t make a mistake in front of everyone.

Steve: I want to participate when it’s a topic I want to talk about. Something I know a lot about.

Georgia: I think if you’re in groups and you work with people that you can talk to and that you have good discussions with, that helps.

Jamie: To get a good grade.

These comments were interesting to my mentor and me, particularly students’ fear of feeling “self-conscious” and giving the “right” answer. Leann didn’t want to “make a mistake in front of everyone.” Steve wanted to make sure that there was a topic that he knew “a lot about” before speaking up. Their answers led me to other questions:

How can I help students feel “comfortable” -- an atmosphere that Leann desires? Why do they think they need the correct answer? Do we need to provide motivation to talk? For example, Jamie said he would participate in order to get a good grade; my mentor requires participation as part of the students’ grades.

As an aside, first period students grew a bit chattier as the year went on. They talked more frequently before and after class and they also participated a bit more in discussion. One simple change we made was to change the seating. There was a seating chart in the beginning of the year, but we allowed them to get up and go sit wherever they wanted. This may not work with another class where friends distract each other, but this seemed to make first period happier and more comfortable. We also discontinued our bell work that started off the day, because it had seemed to quiet the class even more.

I continued to think about the questions of participation, particularly, what are the strategies that I can use as a teacher to encourage valuable talking in class? I had the opportunity to explore different strategies to encourage participation during the teaching of my unit on Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. I developed a unit on the book for our English 10 students; the students were in two classes, and one of these classes was part of the Collaborative Teaching Initiative, which includes special education students in mainstream classrooms.

Because of the class makeup, I designed the unit with differentiation in mind. I’ve found that not only students with Individual Education Plans need extra support but many of the English 10 students do also. Many of the English 10 students have expressed in different situations that they do not like reading; I’ve also observed that many of these students lack motivation, and the chances that they are going to complete a lot of reading as homework are low. With these challenges in mind, I experimented with several strategies to stir up meaningful conversation. Many of these strategies involved providing students with a safe place to explore their thoughts before speaking—addressing the issue of student confidence. The strategies included: reading comprehension sheets, think-pair-shares, collaborative work and the Socratic method. The first strategy I used to encourage class participation was a reading strategy.

Reading Comprehension Sheets

For the reading strategy, I incorporated reading comprehension sheets inside the students’ unit packet. These sheets were divided according to the chunk of reading they were assigned. So, for example, there were six sheets, and the first sheet was titled: Section 1, from “The Hearth and the Salamander,” pp. 3-40. The second sheet was for pp. 41-68, and so on. The sheets had three categories for the students to fill out:

1. Questions or confusions about the section

2. Connections you can make to your own life or another text (movie, book)

3. What you noticed about the characters or their society

All three of the categories reflect the characteristics of participation that are important to me—particularly if expressed verbally. “Questions or confusions” could contain the students’ wonderings that I need to focus on or address in class. The categories with “connections” and “what you noticed” can demonstrate student engagement. And, ideally, when worked on verbally in class, student questions and comments in these areas can help build class knowledge.

Each comprehension sheet was worth three points, for a total of 18 points, and I announced this when I assigned the students the first chunk of reading to do. I announced that all the sheets would be due when we were done reading the book. Also, when I gave in-class reading time, I would remind the students to take out their packets to take notes on the reading. I had to announce this clearly and loudly, and, because many of the students don’t listen the first time, I also repeated myself several times when some of them just looked at me blankly. I observed that a few of the students got in the habit of taking out their packets to take notes. Others needed my constant reminders, and even with the verbal reminders in class some would read without taking notes. Ultimately, though, I did notice that their notes served as starting points as participation in class.

For example, I used the sheets as an opener when a chunk of reading was due. I would ask the students at the start of class to take out their packets and their books. I would ask them to look at their notes from the reading and ask if anyone had any questions or confusions. In this sense, they had their thoughts right in front of them, and they didn’t have to think about it on the spot. They could just refer to their notes. This concept relates to some research regarding how to help students communicate.

Peter Smagorinsky, professor of language and literacy education at the University of Georgia, outlines in an article two kinds of speech and writing. These two kinds are “final draft and exploratory,” explains Smagorinsky. Referring to Douglas Barnes’ work, Smargorinsky writes,

“In too many classrooms, discussions are conducted so that only final-draft speech is rewarded. That is, students are encouraged to participate only when they have arrived at a fairly well thought out idea that they can present to the teacher for approval. Under these circumstances, a lot of students don’t say much at all because they are thinking through their ideas and never quite reach that finalized state where their thought can be offered for the teacher to approve. By the time they’ve articulated their thoughts in their head, the discussion has moved along and the contribution is no longer relevant” (Smagorinsky 10-11).

He suggests offering “exploratory talk” to allow students to work through ideas. This “talk” can take the form of pairing with a classmate or small group to work out ideas and questions, or it can also extend to writing (11). In this sense, the comprehension sheets served as the students’ exploration before they spoke up in the final draft speech that Smagorinsky refers to.

When I started off the first class discussion of Fahrenheit 451 by asking whether there any questions or confusions, a number of the students spoke up. There were several questions from students about the section; asking questions is one of the characteristics of participation that’s important to me. This shows me that they were making an effort to think about the subject, and it tells me what I need to focus on at that moment. It also provides a safe arena for others who have similar questions; they might be more inclined to speak up with their questions as well. “What is going on?” one student asked. “Why are they starting fires, rather than putting them out?” asked another. I really needed to know that several students had this fundamental confusion before I plowed ahead with the book, and that fact that the students verbally participated by asking the questions was very helpful to me.

Notice that on the reading comprehension sheets, a number of students had written their confusions out before class. For example:

Student A (on sheet): This entire thing is confusing!

Student B (on sheet): I was confused for [most of it].

Student C (on sheet): Why did the firemen burn the books?

Student D (on sheet): Firemen in our time are men who put out fires. In the story they make a fire? Burn the house down? Why?

In class, the students could see that others were confused and therefore it was okay to talk about their own confusions. Their questions showed me what I needed to focus on at the moment. These initial questions allowed me to open up the questions to the class, and, organically, a discussion would result. I would try not to answer the questions myself specifically, because I feel that it’s important for the class to build their own knowledge (unless they are stumped). I would invite others to offer their knowledge, comments or observations in an effort to get more of the class involved in the talk. For example, if a student raised their hand and asked why the fireman is starting the fires, I asked the class: “What do you think is going here? Why are the firemen starting fires rather than putting them out?” Inviting a student response allows the students to build their own knowledge, rather than me simply transmitting knowledge to them; this philosophy is important to me as a teacher.

I believe in the theory of constructivism, in which students construct knowledge through their interpretations, experience and observations. I like to encourage knowledge construction by continually turning to the students for the answers. One way to describe this is as a “community of practice,” according to Etienne Wenger (Wenger 1). Wenger explains that the members in this community “are groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” The members of a community classroom “engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information” (1). I like to think that the more I can ask my students to share their knowledge, perhaps they will feel like more of a community with common goals; for example, in this situation, the goal would be to find the answers and understanding with students’ responses.