Getting middle school or high school students to raise their hands and answer or ask questions, beyond for the sake of a participation grade or external rewards, can be a challenge. Engaging in a classroom discussion requires first and foremost the energy to pay attention, and secondly the energy to express a question or opinion. To get students to participate in meaningful ways, the most effective thing to do is to get them to love the subject, care about it, and find their educational place in it.
Asking Opinion Questions
First, ask questions often. View the lesson as an educational conversation, even though the teacher does the most of the talking. In conversations, the longer a person talks without letting the other person jump in, the less engaged this person will be. Thus, keep the momentum of their attention going by making sure not to go more than five minutes without asking a question.
The most important thing a teacher should want from his or her students is for them to share their opinion. Their opinion is their personal interaction with the material, and the more a teacher shows a desire for this opinion, the more a student will be likely to both form and share opinions and ideas.
Interaction between Students
Encourage students to interact with each other. Once you have asked a student’s opinion, deeply considered it, and responded to it, open it up to the rest of the classroom. Getting the students to respond to each other will give them a sense of a learning community, and a feeling of common purpose. It will also allow them to communicate with each other intellectually on a level that teachers can’t because teachers are not part of the same culture that their students are a part of. But as always, be the referee to make sure that all conversation is relevant and all the material gets covered.
When the subjects get more removed from the students’ understanding, such as ambiguous subjects in biology or little – known periods in history, try to translate the material as much as possible without being condescending. Political motivations in history classes are not always clear, not always mentioned in the reading, and often need to be explained. For example, cluing the class in to a president’s fears and anxieties – his more human and relatable features – besides merely his actions, may help the students understand the complexity of the situation more.
Getting one’s students to meaningfully participate means getting them to care about the subject matter. To do this, remember to show care and concern for a student’s opinion, get the class to interact, and make sure the material is digestible for them.
