PGCE How do I encourage the quieter students to participate in discussion?

[Bella43]

Hello, I hope someone can help. I'm a student teacher. My placement is in a GCSE English class. I have around 3 students who actively participate in class. They're confident in general and love group discussions. The rest of the class (it's only a small group) are quiet. When you speak to them on a one to one basis they'll answer questions but apart from that they don't actively engage. They sit and listen but tend not to join in and will quietly do their work afterwards. I'm quiet and was very timid when I was their age so know how they feel. However, being the other side of the fence now, I need to check that they're learning or at least enjoying the lesson. I've had feedback from their tutor to 'pick' on them. So instead of letting them blend into the background I now need to ask them a question directly. I hate the thought of making them squirm. I hated being 'picked on' in school but can now see why the teachers did it. Please tell me I'm not being a bad person singling them out to answer questions in front of everyone. Is this what every teacher does to encourage the quieter members of class to talk? What else can I do to make discussions more inclusive? Thanks in advance.

Have you started by telling them that you expect them to join in? Then think about putting something daft up on screen, like a picture of your favourite chocolate bar and ask each individually what their favourite is. It may just be a confidence thing.

Are you allowed to use tools like Padlet to ask them to write & share comments on? They can join in without feeling that everyone is staring at them or laughing at what they have to say.

Could you set them all something to research and present back to everyone else? Doing this might help them gain a bit more confidence. But if it makes no difference then yes ask directly but give advance warning.

I'm doing French classes as an adult and I much prefer when the teacher asks individuals to answer. I'm not very confident and I hate speaking out. But I also hate the same 2 people always speaking, and I hate that moment of silence before someone speaks where I'm willing myself to answer but I'm too shy. I wish I was braver.

So I like when people get asked by name, much less awkwardness all round. So long as you don't dwell for too long if the person doesn't know or doesn't want to speak, long painful silences are not good either.

Lolly sticks/random name generators/getting the person who answered the last question to pick the next person and so on? ‘Think pair share’ always works well too, or getting them to write their answers first then feedback so they have time to think first. It’s tricky when you start as you tend to latch onto any keen kids to make the discussion flow and it does get easier as you get to know students better in the long term. Online is harder too as it’s easy for them to sink into the background and not speak up. Good luck.

If you are asking them to put their hands up wait for longer till you pick someone a few extra seconds will likely make a big difference.
If you do ‘pick on’ someone ask them and easy question with a yes no or 2 options answer to start with.
Use individual white boards for the student to all write their answers then turn them to show you.

Or, telling them who is answering the question before you ask it so they have thinking time built in and are not quite as on the spot.
Failing that, get them to use the chat function of whatever online system you are using and then read out their responses?

Id make it clear that its ok to pause to collect your thoughts before you answer.

I absolutely hated speaking in class, and would often stay silent when asked, even if I thought I knew the answer as I was too scared of getting it wrong and making a fool of myself. The old adage was true for me "keep quiet and let people think you're an idiot rather than say something and remove all doubt". You're really not going to get the introverted ones to open up by ambushing them - you'll make them even more introverted. You need to do it gently and slowly to build up their confidence - that's taking many weeks rather than a couple of lesson. Get them to open up on a one to one basis whilst you're walking round the class or call them up to your desk to discuss homework etc. Slow and steady wins the race etc etc.

we have this in tutorials. they are all 20+ and want to be layers, yet do not speak, cameras off etc.

I wish the tutor would just call names at random but she doesn't want to so the same 2-3 people answer every time. gets old fast.

I (being a camera on person) have to ensure I do prepare for all tutorials so I can be called on, the others don't have to bother now.

(I mean I win as I do learn the stuff and get feedback, but they can just write down my answers and not learn themselves)

Are you not doing remote learning? I'm finding the fact they are using the chat on teams means the quieter ones are joining in more. Get them to use an emoji to state how they understood whatever it is you've just taught. They all do that. Then say something like 'oh X, does that mean you got it?' or something similar. Just little chips away at the quiet ones and eventually you find they open up. It also helps the loud ones from taking over (I mean remote learning) as they can't in the same way as the classroom.

I'm finding the whole thing exhausting, but it does have some positives.

Are you sure the whole rest of the class are actually quiet or is it just that they’re used to the same 3 dominating the lesson?

Since DS has been remote learning in Zoom, if noticed that’s it’s the same 3 children practically screaming “look at me!” Me! Me! Me!” In every lesson. DS is quieter and happy to sit back and let them dominate despite having something to say so I tell him that at least if he puts his hand up, the teacher knows he’s engaging and he’s now participating much more.

It’s much better when the teacher selects a child from their list.

Also don’t select the first person to put their hand up as you can guarantee they’re the first person with their hand up every bloody time (obviously select them at some stage, don’t just ignore them but not straight away).

Or leave a pause and say “I’m just going to wait and see if any more hands go up”, or “I’m just going to give people some more thinking time”.

As someone who was painfully self-conscious as a child and teenager, I would say that the fear of being 'picked on' and made to verbally contribute, actually impacted on my ability to learn about and absorb what was being taught. In lessons where I knew this was likely to happen, I spent much of the time dreading my 'turn' and trying to mentally prepare an answer, so wasn't engaging with others' contributions. If I did have to speak, I was so relieved when it had finished, that I kind of 'relaxed' for the rest of the lesson and didn't really focus.

I realise my reactions may have been extreme (!)

Is this online? Cameras on or off?

In a ‘normal’ lesson, you absolutely have to ensure that all pupils are taking part, and hear the voices of all pupils. I never take hands up, always choose people to respond to questions and often give similar feedback to what you’ve had to student teachers. Of course, it’s all differentiated; EAL pupil is told which line of text I’ll ask her to read, underconfident child is asked a question I know they have a response to, daughter of headteacher is given the hardest question

Online it is much harder though. I’d start by finding out what tech pupils are working from (do a quick quiz in SMHW, Microsoft forms or whatever app job are using, with one of the questions being ‘can you use the speaker on your device?’) There are several pupils in each of my classes who can’t contribute verbally to online lessons and it’s useful to know who those are. Then: start easy (“which of these three statements do you most agree with? Write 1, 2 or 3 on the chat box” for example) and - using your knowledge of who has what tech - target pupils for more info (“M, can you explain why you said 2 in the chat box while T turns his mic on and tells us why he said 1?”)

Other ways to know they are responding: thumbs up (on camera); hands up (without camera); lots of quizzes; preparing a short video response to a poem/extract etc.

Good luck. PGCEs are hard enough. Trying to do it online must be even harder.