So I just can’t drone on and on without other people talking. I won’t do it. This stuff is really boring, I know, and I don’t want to stand up there listening to my voice for an hour. The class this morning was not interested in speaking at all. When I asked a easy-answer yes or no question, Do you guys have library barcodes? I was met with blank, open-mouthed stares. They wouldn’t even raise their hands.
Now, so much of how students interact with me depends on how they interact with each other in the disciplinary classroom. They’re going to chill with me for 75 out-of-context minutes; I can’t do much to affect the dynamics they’ve already established. Shrug. But here’s how I got them to talk: I made them write something down. The second slide on my powerpoint was just the sentence, Why are you here today? I took out my watch and said, You have one minute to write down an answer to that question. And then I asked for volunteers, and managed to cajole five of them into reading out loud.
I can’t say they were ever truly engaged, but at least I heard a little something. And since I said no repeats, I ended up with five articulated learning goals from a class that worked really hard to be totally silent. Not bad.