Series First Days of School: It's Always Awkward in the Beginning: Teaching Through Silence

Teaching Through Silence

Lesson Objective: Encourage participation in a variety of ways
All Grades / All Subjects / Participation
3 MIN

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

  1. What are the different ways Ms. Wessling deals with silence?
  2. How does Ms. Wessling use empathy to relate to her students?
  3. Why might this strategy be particularly helpful at the beginning of the year?

18 Comments

  • Private message to Michael Burnett
  1. What are the different ways Ms. Wessling deals with silence?
    Sometimes she will sit patiently and wait for someone to give an answer.  Other times she will tell students beforehand that she will be calling on them for answers, thus allowing them to prepare an answer.
  2. How does Ms. Wessling use empathy to relate to her students?
    By showing she has been in their place, students are able to relate and open up and feel more comfortable about giving answers, even if they are incorrect.  This is good because it shows that she isn't judging them.
  3. Why might this strategy be particularly helpful at the beginning of the year?
    This establishes that dialogue and discussion thru oral communication in the class is an expectation.  By setting it early in the year (day one) she is able to let students know that they need to be prepared to speak in class.
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  • Private message to jennifer cordova

1. Ms. Wessling uses several strategies to deal with the silence of a classroom.  Students are often uncomfortable with sharing for fear of judgement.  In this video it demonstrated being patient and just letting the silence sit, being the lead learner and getting the conversations started, using think pair share to allow the students time to come up with a response and feel supported in their thinking, and also paraphrasing and adding to student responses to model what a classroom conversastion should look like sound like feel like.

2. She uses empathy toward her students by putting herself in their place and being able to relate to why they are silent and reluctant to respond outloud during classtime.  She is able to break the ice by making the students feel safe and supported.

3. This strategy would be particularly helpful at the beginning of the year because students are just getting to know each other and the teacher.  They are not yet comfortable voicing their thoughts and opinions.  Students would need to feel safe and see what participation looks like.

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  • Private message to Ashley Peralta Griego
  1. What are the different ways Ms. Wessling deals with silence? Ms. Wessling uses a few strategies to deal with silence. She will sit in silence and be patient (this allows thinking time for students or sometimes they don't want to be first to answer), she lets them know ahead of time that there will be a group discussion after turning and talking (this lowers the anxiety and risk for students because they know what to expect and are more likely to answer after practicing with a partner or testing out their answer with their partner), or she will paraphrase/build on what a student has answered to model what discussions look like within the classroom. 
  2. How does Ms. Wessling use empathy to relate to her students? Ms. Wessling uses empathy to relate to her students by putting herself in their shoes to think through why they may not want to answer or their fears about answering out. She is able to come up with strategies to make the students feel safe to discuss ideas within the classroom, which then builds on the classroom culture.
  3. Why might this strategy be particularly helpful at the beginning of the year? This is particularly helpful in the beginning of the year to start modeling what the discussion will be like in the classroom and sets the standard for the classroom so students know what to expect when sharing ideas. It also starts to create a safe environment for students to share their ideas or thoughts in the classroom, so that later on in the year, the discussions can be more meaningful for the learner.
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  • Private message to Michael Baguskis

Allow students to be students. They are kids and we need to remember that. We are there to facilitate their learning and assist them as they continue on their academic journeys. Some students will be more outspoken then others which is ok but allowing and encouraging other students to have their own voice is important too.

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  • Private message to Jordan Allcorn
  1. What are the different ways Ms. Wessling deals with silence?  She waits and also encourages partner talk first (think pair share).
  2. How does Ms. Wessling use empathy to relate to her students?  She tries to put herself in their shoes and remember their anxieties about being acccepted by their peers.
  3. Why might this strategy be particularly helpful at the beginning of the year?  This is especially helpful early in the year because the students likely are not comfortable with eachother and they aren't comfortable with the teacher yet either.
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Materials

Transcripts

  • Transcript

    Speaker 1:            Who's got something to share?

    Speaker 1:            Who's got something to share?

                                        What did you mark and why did you mark it?

                                        What else do you think about that quote? No? Nobody else has an idea?

                                        We've all been there where we're leading a discussion and we're asking meaningful questions and there's complete silence.

                                        I know you're all looking down like, "Don't call on me. Don't call on me."

                                        When that happens to me, my first move is to put myself in their shoes and to really figure out what is going on underneath the silence. Is it because they don't understand the content? Is it because they're nervous about other people in the room? Is it because of something that I hadn't even accounted for?

                                        Who marked something down? I heard you talking.

                                        A lot of what's going on in terms of quiet in a classroom, especially early on in a course before kids get to know each other, has a lot more to do with wanting to be sure they're going to be accepted by their peers. And I have to be the lead learner in that scenario.

                                        What did you mark? What do you think is important?

                                        There're some different ways that I can handle that. Sometimes, I just let the silence sit. Let it be quiet for a while.

                                        I'm really good at waiting, and I'm super patient.

                                        Sometimes I just tell them that I'm really patient, which I truly am. Other times, I will maybe start to tell them in advance.

                                        Turn and talk.

                                        And so, they have some time to think and to talk to each other before I ask them to share.

                                        I asked you guys to kind of think about what you could share. Do you want too start?

                                        So they still have some choice, but at the same time, they're also kind of getting permission to talk out loud.

    Speaker 2:            They really have no idea what's behind them or what's going on. The only thing that they can see is the shadows.

    Speaker 1:            Exactly. It's kind of like, we don't know what we don't know. Yeah, you're right. We're snapping.

                                        Sometimes, I will take what they've said, and I'll paraphrase it. Sometimes, I will try to build on it, because I'm trying to model what discussion and conversation can look like for us in this classroom.

                                        Tell me something that you talked about, that you remember from the essay yesterday.

    Speaker 2:            Sometimes to find out the truth, you have to put forth effort or want to find out the truth, and some people may not want to do that.

    Speaker 1:            Absolutely. You've got it. What else?

    Speaker 2:            I want to say something, but I don't want to say it wrong.

                                        No judgment in this class.

    Speaker 1:            There's no judgment. Besides, even if it's not quite right, I'll help you out.

    Speaker 2:            Okay.

    Speaker 1:            There are always quiet moments everybody is worried that they might be wrong or might be judged, so as a teacher in that moment, I need to not get uncomfortable about the silence, and I have to remember to put myself in their shoes.

    Speaker 2:            You don't know it's wrong until someone proves that it's wrong. You know what I mean?

                                        You don't know what you don't know.

                                        That's what I was trying to-

    Speaker 1:            You've got it. You don't know what you don't know.

     

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School Details

Johnston Senior High School
6500 Northwest 100th Street
Johnston IA 50131
Population: 1668

Data Provided By:

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Teachers

teachers
Sarah Brown Wessling
English Language Arts / 10 11 12 / Teacher