Last week I finally had a moment where I felt like I was able to connect with my students on a different level. Having early classes I find that most of my students are half asleep for most of the class period, even through group assignments and discussions. Aside from having them stand up and move around between activities I wasn’t really sure how to get them to wake up and be present. I obviously avoid the dreaded lecture as much as possible, but I also felt that sometimes discussions were not engaging for most of them either. During said class period I decided to do a thesis exercise with the class that engaged them on something other than the college experience. Asking them to collectively come up with a topic unrelated to any of our readings, but rather something that was engaging to them, I found that both classes came up with the same topic: Sleep. I then placed them into groups and asked the groups to come up with a thesis statement, 3 main points, and personal evidence to support these main points about sleep. This led to a very surprising amount of engagement on their part. It was clear that this was a subject that they were able to engage with and thus they were able to think in terms other than writing an academic essay. This was a great exercise because they were able to see how their ability to connect with the topic led to clearer arguments and points being made. It was probably the first moment that I had where I felt like I actually connected and got through to my students. It was surprising to me that both classes came up with the same topic and that they were both engaged in the discussion. This has gotten the ball rolling for me with my students and I feel like it opened the door for both of us to engage on a different, more productive level that wasn’t available prior to this exercise. While the thoughts that led to this activity were my own, I found a useful website that suggests similar approaches to his problem:
http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-student-participation-tips
This website has a list of “10 smart ways to increase classroom participation” one of which I mentioned earlier in this post: Physical activity. When breaking students into groups for activities I have been asking students to get up and organize themselves in a line based on some ice-breaker type topic (birthday, first letter of last name, etc.), this has helped to get them moving and also breaks down some of the communication barriers between them. I feel that both of these elements have helped to increase classroom participation and thus I feel that this “problem” in my classroom has lessened to some extent.