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6 Law Tchr. 1 (1998-1999)

handle is hein.journals/lawteaer6 and id is 1 raw text is: TUE LAW GONZAGA UNIVERSITY Institute for Law School Teaching Fall 1998 The quiet classroom Devise a useful strategy to break the student code of silence By Mark Wojcik t times, students are reluctant to speak in class. They until the student got it right. may not volunteer comments. They may sit silently rephrase the question, he hop when a teacher asks a question. They may save their skills that will be useful befo own questions about the material and assignments until after pressure situations. class, when they can ask the professor privately. Some students may not ask questions because they feel isolated Do Something Positive. and unwelcome in the classroom for any number of reasons, including race, gender, A teacher can create a positive learning sexual orientation, or their et national origin. This essay deals not with factors that encouraging after a student asks a might affect individual students but with factors affecting the entire class. Although all classes are quiet from time to time, some classes can develop a Code of Silence that continues for several sessions or even several Minimize Competition. weeks. In response to this situation, a number of colleagues have had to devise useful ways to stimulate discussion in Some students will ask qu classes. The ideas presented here are by no means they are competitive. They d comprehensive. They may, however, offer useful suggestions to enjoy the benefits of the te to those who find themselves standing in front of a quiet behavior in two ways. First, i classroom. will write down that questior Minimize Fear. Students undoubtedly feel a great deal of anxiety in their law classes. Some students are afraid to ask questions that might make them look foolish in front of classmates. They will not ask teachers to explain words they do not understand; they will not ask follow-up questions when they do not understand an answer to another student s question. I find that students will take more risks when I treat each question with respect, just as I treat each student with respect. Sometimes I will rephrase a question before answering it, such as by saying, if I understand what is behind your question, what you really want to know is .... I find that this approach is often appropriate for smaller classes. One colleague strongly disagrees with this approach, however. He would not rephrase the question but would instead keep asking the student to rephrase the question By forcing the student to es to help the student develop re judges and in other high- A teacher can create a positive learning environment simply by saying something encouraging after a student asks a question. Professor Jan Levine suggests that the responses can range from a nod and a smile to saying, Yes, that s a great question! testions only after class because o not want their fellow students acher s answers. I thwart this if I answer a question after class I n and repeat it at the start of the next class meeting. I might introduce the question by saying someone asked me an interesting question yesterday ... or you might be wondering whether .... By asking the question openly, no student obtains an advantage over others. Second, if a particularly competitive student will ask questions only after class, I tell that student to ask the question at the start of the next class. By doing this once or Continued on page 2

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