I used to give points for participation, but in the English class I just guest taught, I scratched it in light of two things – one the grade pollution discussion we just had in class, and two, the Virginia Tech incident. I decided I need to go back and work some things through before I go back to giving points for participation. Briefly explained: in the English classroom I was teaching in for 3 weeks, there are the two rows to the right occupied by the "popular kids." They are one large crew, they're somewhat unruly – it was difficult to get them to stop chatting and passing notes to each other, if they weren't applying make-up and flirting. However, they are smart (if not smart-asses) and participated meaningfully. In fact, they dominated the discussions. The next two rows to the left were kids who were not in the popular clique. These students participated occasionally. It was a mixed group of students some of whom wrote the best stuff I read in the class. Lastly, there was the far left row. This row was occupied by one French American student and three Chinese/Chinese American students and no one in that row participated in discussions. I chalk the participation patterns up to popularity and comfort more than a comment on the student's engagement in the material. The strength of the written work in the class did not bear out a correlation between participation with subject matter engagement, analytic ability, or sheer writing talent.
One of the things that have influenced this is something I read regarding the shooter in the Virginia Tech incident. When he read aloud in his English class (undoubtedly he was required to do so), classmates ridiculed his accent and told him to go back to China. I wondered when I read this, where were the adults in all of the bullying he edured? I have a zero tolerance policy for bullying in the classroom, but even with my thin skin (I was subjected to a lot of humiliating bullying in my early adolescence), I know that things slip by me. Additionally, much bullying takes place on a subtle psychological level, and there is often no need for spoken words, a simple look or smirk between students can be enough to reinforce an insecure student's position at the bottom of the social pecking order. The fear and damage from ridicule is so profound I can't force kids to share in front of their peers when they might be scared to death of being laughed at or scrutinized by the "popular kids." So for now, I will not punish or reward participation.
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2 comments:
I hear you on the way that social conformity and peer pressure and ridicule are often subtle and deeply wounding, and I'm glad that the Virginia Tech incident is being used as a learning tool by other teachers. I tried to talk about bullying with a few students earlier in the semester when I noticed one student being picked on. I think some of it is impossible to stop. Some Andrew Bird lyrics come to my mind. The song 'Measuring Cups' is all about the pressure of standing up in front of a class and being given complexes simply by being submerged in adolescence and the insecurities of others. Ideally, I want my classroom to be a safe learning environment, where kids will actually express emotion freely, where they won't be afraid to act out scenes from Shakespeare as they might in a drama class, and where put-downs are not tolerated. In reality, these things seem extremely difficult to develop. I guess small victories have to be savored. When you get that one quiet student to volunteer and outwardly engage in the process. Or when the smart-asses actually shut up and listen to some of the quiet kids. I don't think we can get them to stop laughing at each other, but I think we can get them to at least consider where that need comes from. One thing I hate is that the bigger the class, the harder it seems to be to notice the students as individuals on a daily basis.
Look back at the ERWC units from last semester. There's a unit among those materials on bullying. It's a pretty good unit.
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