October 9, 2010

Mine is Blue, By The Way.

My class this semester won’t talk to me.

I try, I really do, but they just won’t talk to me. Usually there’s always at least one or two people in a class like this that will bail a teacher out and respond, even when nobody wants to. I don’t have any of those students in this class. It’s a complete failure in that regard. It got so bad that I had to give a listening comprehension quiz the other day because they simply would not have any discussion about an essay in question.

I’ve had to break them up into groups with specific questions to answer in order to get them to talk. I really would prefer not to do this. I feel like they’re going to get more out of an experience which is less guided, where they are free to come to their own conclusions about the text, and then get feedback from me about how they did. It’s there they can learn that they can disagree, they can take other angles of attack, and they can pick what they feel is important. These are all lessons I wish I had figured out earlier in my college career, and I want to give that to them early. They just won’t do it, though! It’s frustrating.

Still, on Friday, I really got them to talk, due to something really stupid.

I put a list of discussion questions on the board, as I’ve been doing. Then, simply because I do things just to entertain me, I added an additional question. “What is the best artificial flavor?”

Debate ensued.
Every group had a different favorite. Cherry. Strawberry-Kiwi. Orange “drank.” Blue Raspberry. Every time a group voiced a favorite, everyone wanted to talk about it. It was amazing! The class could actually discuss things!
Of course, it then became really hard to get them back on the topic of essays. But, well, at least it’s something. Small victories.

I’ll probably attempt to refer back to this discussion when we talk about the Evaluating essay, as this is exactly the sort of topic they can write about then. That’s really one of the things I’ve found you have to do to be effective as a teacher: you have to be willing to let the random stuff work in and entwine with what you’re teaching. You have to make what people already care about relevant to what you’re doing, and not in a way that feels fake. I can do that with this. That’s good.

Still, I’d rather they have just discussed to begin with. I was spoiled last semester with a class of people who were really passionate about writing, even if they never turned anything in. Oh well.

Leave a comment