Last week, I discovered through talking with my partner and re reading my transcripts that I did ask a lot of referential questions. However they were ALL directed at individuals. At the time I thought that this had no negative aspects, but during this discussion time, I understood that maybe other students would have wanted to add their opinion, or maybe I was subconsciously neglecting some students and choosing other students to speak more often.
After this realization, I tried a few referential questions to the whole class. However my students were not used to that it seems, as no one answered. Maybe they did not want to look like a "smarty pants", what I am tempted to do is offer presentation points for students who are willing to offer their opinion. I am sure that this is also unfair to some students also...will see what happens.
That's a good idea but it might be better to call them 'participation points'. 'Presentation points' makes it sound like they are being evaluated. Just stress that when they offer an opinion or comment they won't be judged. You just want them to be involved.
ReplyDeletehaha...sorry that's what i meant, "participation" points. I always mix them up when i am speaking to the class also...causes havoc!!! haha!!
ReplyDeleteAlso -- consider letting them ask these referential questions to each other in pairs first, beFORE they risk face loss with an incorrect or over-developed answer.
ReplyDeleteI work with a teacher who offers participation points in the form of candy (every right answer and the student is instantly rewarded with candy). I only found that out this week after teaching with him for 3 weeks. I played a game one time with my students and the team that won, asked me "Where is our prize?" and "What did we win?" the bell rang at that point, and I answered that their prize was "break time" :) My co-worker is now mentioning that the students are getting a little jaded with all the candy and expecting it for nothing. OH MY GOSH!! I can't believe he did that. I split up my class into teams, and every day their teams earns points. I show the daily points on the WB, but I keep the monthly totals on a spreadsheet on the computer. That way the winning team can't tease the other teams. I also encourage them to TRY everyday. Then once a month the winning team gets a reward. I wish you luck with your incentive program :)
ReplyDeleteI find reward systems point/candy unwieldy. Or maybe I just hate managing them. If I don't get a volunteer when asking a question I then I usually ask the last student who spoke to choose a volunteer. So I try to get them used to controlling the floor and to be aware of other people in the class. I'm not sure if this encourages students to volunteer on their own but I think it helps to create an atmosphere where the motivation for participation is less teacher focused.
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