Introduction
Where The Idea of Voice Started
In March, I began teaching Senior English as a substitute teacher at a project based learning school. I see 22 students in the morning for two hours and 22 students in the afternoon for two hours. At first I just observed, but after I felt comfortable, I began planning and co-teaching before the teacher left in March.
One day, I decided to have a Socratic Seminar. The students had read a great article called, "Stories Matter." The author claimed that stories are our culture's heartbeat and that the daily workings of our lives are stories worth telling. It was a wonderful piece to compliment their work on their online newspaper, and I wanted the students to discuss the author's arguments. I gave the students 15 minutes to write a response to three prompt questions. Then we formed a circle for our Socratic Seminar. My facilitator read the question and responded to it. Then, a girl spoke up in agreement. Another girl shared a different opinion, and a male student agreed. If you had only looked at the first five or six interactions, you would have thought it was a success, but what came next was a little painful. There was silence. A few students looked anxiously around, squirming in their seats. It seemed like they were conflicted--wanting and not wanting to talk at the same time. Other students looked down. I knew that these quiet students had some great insights to share. I had seen their papers as I walked around the room when the students were writing! To two of them, I even asked them to share what they wrote because it was so insightful. Instead, they looked around and at the floor, and seemed to wait for our discussion to be over.
This silence wasn't exactly shocking. When I first started observing, I noticed that my teacher conducted a variety of activities that allowed students to talk in small groups and with partners and that they often chatted quite a bit in those. I also noticed that when the class had whole group discussions, the room would suddenly go quiet and then slowly, a trickle of students would speak up. After observing a little while, I noticed it was the same five to six students every time. I talked about this with the teacher, and he said he'd noticed it too. He said that since he'd moved into a bigger room this year, he'd had a hard time with participation in whole group discussions. I could see this as a definite possibility. The room had high ceilings and was bigger than any classroom I had ever seen. It was often used as a meeting place for whole grade levels of 140 students or for the PTA. When it was just used for our 22 students, the room echoed like the scene from The Wizard of Oz when Oz shouts to Dorothy and her friends, "I am Oz, the great and powerful!" I could see why my teacher thought that such an environment might be one of the causes for the uncomfortable faces seen in whole group discussions.
Even though I thought the room was a strong contributing factor, I also suspected that it wasn't the only cause. In other classrooms, I'd seen similar occurrences of students looking uncomfortable during discussions. I'd often seen students who seemed to naturally speak up and others who preferred to keep their comments to themselves. In addition, I'd observed that some of my students seemed uncomfortable even during small group discussions, when the room was alive with chatter from other groups and there was no need to fear the dreadful echo of one's own voice.
One day, I decided to have a Socratic Seminar. The students had read a great article called, "Stories Matter." The author claimed that stories are our culture's heartbeat and that the daily workings of our lives are stories worth telling. It was a wonderful piece to compliment their work on their online newspaper, and I wanted the students to discuss the author's arguments. I gave the students 15 minutes to write a response to three prompt questions. Then we formed a circle for our Socratic Seminar. My facilitator read the question and responded to it. Then, a girl spoke up in agreement. Another girl shared a different opinion, and a male student agreed. If you had only looked at the first five or six interactions, you would have thought it was a success, but what came next was a little painful. There was silence. A few students looked anxiously around, squirming in their seats. It seemed like they were conflicted--wanting and not wanting to talk at the same time. Other students looked down. I knew that these quiet students had some great insights to share. I had seen their papers as I walked around the room when the students were writing! To two of them, I even asked them to share what they wrote because it was so insightful. Instead, they looked around and at the floor, and seemed to wait for our discussion to be over.
This silence wasn't exactly shocking. When I first started observing, I noticed that my teacher conducted a variety of activities that allowed students to talk in small groups and with partners and that they often chatted quite a bit in those. I also noticed that when the class had whole group discussions, the room would suddenly go quiet and then slowly, a trickle of students would speak up. After observing a little while, I noticed it was the same five to six students every time. I talked about this with the teacher, and he said he'd noticed it too. He said that since he'd moved into a bigger room this year, he'd had a hard time with participation in whole group discussions. I could see this as a definite possibility. The room had high ceilings and was bigger than any classroom I had ever seen. It was often used as a meeting place for whole grade levels of 140 students or for the PTA. When it was just used for our 22 students, the room echoed like the scene from The Wizard of Oz when Oz shouts to Dorothy and her friends, "I am Oz, the great and powerful!" I could see why my teacher thought that such an environment might be one of the causes for the uncomfortable faces seen in whole group discussions.
Even though I thought the room was a strong contributing factor, I also suspected that it wasn't the only cause. In other classrooms, I'd seen similar occurrences of students looking uncomfortable during discussions. I'd often seen students who seemed to naturally speak up and others who preferred to keep their comments to themselves. In addition, I'd observed that some of my students seemed uncomfortable even during small group discussions, when the room was alive with chatter from other groups and there was no need to fear the dreadful echo of one's own voice.
Needs Assessment
Four Corners Activity
In order to get a better idea of who was participating, who wasn't, and under what conditions, I conducted a different type of discussion called Four Corners. I chose this activity because it allowed me to see students' behavior in both small groups and with the whole group, and to therefore see how students behave in each situation. I also thought that this activity was less intimidating than a Socratic Seminar since students would get to test out their ideas on a small group before sharing aloud with the whole class.
I conducted this activity in the following manner: I post a statement on a PowerPoint slide, and students have to decide whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with the statement. Each corner represents each of those positions, and students migrate to the corner that corresponds to how they feel about the statement. After they settle in a corner, I ask students to discuss with others in their corner why they chose that position. After about a minute of discussing with their group, I ask students to share out why they held that opinion or what they heard from another student. We went through four questions in this way. I recorded every student who spoke and a brief summary of what they said.
What I found was 13 out of the 22 students spoke at least once, or 59% percent. Of the students who spoke, all explained their position or responded to another students' opinion by thoroughly articulating their ideas, which informed me that for the most part, those who chose to speak understood the value of going in depth in their opinions rather than just giving a one-word response. Looking at the number of times each student participated, I realized that the amount of participation varied greatly from student to student. Three students only spoke one time, and one student spoke up to five times.
While I was watching the small groups, I noticed that a few students seemed more reluctant to speak than others. I identified five students who showed signs of being reluctant. They would let others speak before they spoke, spoke in one-word responses or their body language told me they were uncomfortable. Their shoulders were hunched and rigid or their facial expressions conveyed fear. Their behavior surprised me since one-on-one with me, each of those students I identified spoke freely and articulated their ideas well. When I looked back over to see if they spoke in the whole group, I saw that only one of those students had shared their opinion with the whole class. This aligned with my previous observations of the class, that these students possibly felt uncomfortable even sharing their opinions with small groups, not just in large groups.
In this Four Corners activity, I saw varying degrees of comfort levels and student voice in both the small group and large group discussion. This observation suggests to me that my students' participation is more on a continuum rather than in categories of "comfortable in small groups," or "comfortable in both small and large groups." This activity informed me that although many students' skills in explaining their opinions is strong, something else is holding them back from sharing those opinions.
Individual Student Conferences on Participation
In order to find out why I was seeing these patterns, I decided to ask the students individually what they thought about small and large group participation. I asked three questions:
1. What prevents students from sharing their opinion in whole class discussions?
2. Do you think there's a difference between sharing with a small group as opposed to the whole class? In other words, is there value in whole-class
discussion?
3. What can the student or teacher do about this?
In response to the first question, "What prevents students from sharing their opinion in whole class discussions," I got a variety of answers.
"Sometimes I just like to listen, and some people are just quiet, like me. I'd rather hear the opinions of others."
"Sometimes people can be really rude."
"I'm afraid of being wrong. I worry what other people will think."
"If they don't feel comfortable, they won't participate. In our class though, I think we're all pretty comfortable."
These responses made me think. The quiet students answered with some troubling responses: "Sometimes people can be really rude," and "I worry what people will think." Because I was so troubled by the comment about students being rude, I asked the student why she thought that. She said that some of the students come across as better than everyone else. I hadn't seen that side of the class. My impressions were much more in line with the students who consistently spoke in class, that "we're all pretty comfortable."
When I asked the second question, "Do you think whole class discussions have value," I received a variety of responses.
"Yes...The more people participate, the more I get out of it [the discussion]."
"Yea, in small groups you get that individual feel. I get more out of those, but in big groups, you get more random opinions...And those are cool to hear."
Based on the students' responses to the first two questions, I was pretty encouraged to pursue this topic of student voice in the classroom. Clearly, there was a problem in students participating in whole class discussions. Despite this lack of participation, many students felt there was value to whole group discussions, and seemed to want to hear more voices. How to increase the number of voices was the real issue. From the third question, I was hoping to see if students had any strategies for themselves or for me. What I found was that the students were very perceptive and helpful, just as I'd hoped.
For responses to the third question, "What can the student or teacher do about this," students volunteered the following:
"I guess students could push themselves to come out. I could, but I don't. I'm more of a listener."
"A teacher should facilitate discussions first before expecting students to do it on their own. Also, a timer really helps. It lets students know how long they
are supposed to talk."
"Students need to see the purpose. I know that teachers always have a purpose, but sometimes it doesn't come across and people get bored."
"Pick on students, kind of make them talk. Maybe get the class to know each other on a personal level."
"It depends on the teacher. Some teachers, I just won't talk in their class. It's either because it's boring, or awkward, or they're mean in some way."
"Encourage them to talk. Like, when they're sharing with a partner, say, "You should share what you've said. Also, make the students the scapegoat. Ask
students to share what their partner said. That sometimes works."
The response, "Maybe get the class to know each other on a personal level," suggests to me that improving our classroom environment, i.e. the closeness of students and their comfort levels with one another, might lead to increased participation. This aligns with responses from the first question such as "Sometimes people can be really rude." Getting students to know each other better might help in this area, and is an idea I would like to pursue more in this research.
The responses, "Encourage them to talk," "It depends on the teacher," and "A teacher should facilitate discussions first before expecting students to do it on their own" suggest to me that students rely heavily on the teacher's attitude and expectations towards the student and towards discussions. These responses also suggest that encouraging students is crucial to seeing successful discussions.
Both of my needs assessments helped inform my thinking on this idea of student voice and the goals I have for this action research. I want to increase student participation both in small groups and large groups, since I'm seeing that some students seem uncomfortable in small groups. I want to increase student comfort levels in the classroom, since that seemed to be part of the problem based on the individual student conferences I conducted. Most of all, I want students to feel like they have a voice in the class, and that what they say matters. I don't want students to feel unsure of whether they should share or not. I don't want to see students looking down at their feet or wondering whether they are in a safe enough place to share what they feel.
In order to get a better idea of who was participating, who wasn't, and under what conditions, I conducted a different type of discussion called Four Corners. I chose this activity because it allowed me to see students' behavior in both small groups and with the whole group, and to therefore see how students behave in each situation. I also thought that this activity was less intimidating than a Socratic Seminar since students would get to test out their ideas on a small group before sharing aloud with the whole class.
I conducted this activity in the following manner: I post a statement on a PowerPoint slide, and students have to decide whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with the statement. Each corner represents each of those positions, and students migrate to the corner that corresponds to how they feel about the statement. After they settle in a corner, I ask students to discuss with others in their corner why they chose that position. After about a minute of discussing with their group, I ask students to share out why they held that opinion or what they heard from another student. We went through four questions in this way. I recorded every student who spoke and a brief summary of what they said.
What I found was 13 out of the 22 students spoke at least once, or 59% percent. Of the students who spoke, all explained their position or responded to another students' opinion by thoroughly articulating their ideas, which informed me that for the most part, those who chose to speak understood the value of going in depth in their opinions rather than just giving a one-word response. Looking at the number of times each student participated, I realized that the amount of participation varied greatly from student to student. Three students only spoke one time, and one student spoke up to five times.
While I was watching the small groups, I noticed that a few students seemed more reluctant to speak than others. I identified five students who showed signs of being reluctant. They would let others speak before they spoke, spoke in one-word responses or their body language told me they were uncomfortable. Their shoulders were hunched and rigid or their facial expressions conveyed fear. Their behavior surprised me since one-on-one with me, each of those students I identified spoke freely and articulated their ideas well. When I looked back over to see if they spoke in the whole group, I saw that only one of those students had shared their opinion with the whole class. This aligned with my previous observations of the class, that these students possibly felt uncomfortable even sharing their opinions with small groups, not just in large groups.
In this Four Corners activity, I saw varying degrees of comfort levels and student voice in both the small group and large group discussion. This observation suggests to me that my students' participation is more on a continuum rather than in categories of "comfortable in small groups," or "comfortable in both small and large groups." This activity informed me that although many students' skills in explaining their opinions is strong, something else is holding them back from sharing those opinions.
Individual Student Conferences on Participation
In order to find out why I was seeing these patterns, I decided to ask the students individually what they thought about small and large group participation. I asked three questions:
1. What prevents students from sharing their opinion in whole class discussions?
2. Do you think there's a difference between sharing with a small group as opposed to the whole class? In other words, is there value in whole-class
discussion?
3. What can the student or teacher do about this?
In response to the first question, "What prevents students from sharing their opinion in whole class discussions," I got a variety of answers.
"Sometimes I just like to listen, and some people are just quiet, like me. I'd rather hear the opinions of others."
"Sometimes people can be really rude."
"I'm afraid of being wrong. I worry what other people will think."
"If they don't feel comfortable, they won't participate. In our class though, I think we're all pretty comfortable."
These responses made me think. The quiet students answered with some troubling responses: "Sometimes people can be really rude," and "I worry what people will think." Because I was so troubled by the comment about students being rude, I asked the student why she thought that. She said that some of the students come across as better than everyone else. I hadn't seen that side of the class. My impressions were much more in line with the students who consistently spoke in class, that "we're all pretty comfortable."
When I asked the second question, "Do you think whole class discussions have value," I received a variety of responses.
"Yes...The more people participate, the more I get out of it [the discussion]."
"Yea, in small groups you get that individual feel. I get more out of those, but in big groups, you get more random opinions...And those are cool to hear."
Based on the students' responses to the first two questions, I was pretty encouraged to pursue this topic of student voice in the classroom. Clearly, there was a problem in students participating in whole class discussions. Despite this lack of participation, many students felt there was value to whole group discussions, and seemed to want to hear more voices. How to increase the number of voices was the real issue. From the third question, I was hoping to see if students had any strategies for themselves or for me. What I found was that the students were very perceptive and helpful, just as I'd hoped.
For responses to the third question, "What can the student or teacher do about this," students volunteered the following:
"I guess students could push themselves to come out. I could, but I don't. I'm more of a listener."
"A teacher should facilitate discussions first before expecting students to do it on their own. Also, a timer really helps. It lets students know how long they
are supposed to talk."
"Students need to see the purpose. I know that teachers always have a purpose, but sometimes it doesn't come across and people get bored."
"Pick on students, kind of make them talk. Maybe get the class to know each other on a personal level."
"It depends on the teacher. Some teachers, I just won't talk in their class. It's either because it's boring, or awkward, or they're mean in some way."
"Encourage them to talk. Like, when they're sharing with a partner, say, "You should share what you've said. Also, make the students the scapegoat. Ask
students to share what their partner said. That sometimes works."
The response, "Maybe get the class to know each other on a personal level," suggests to me that improving our classroom environment, i.e. the closeness of students and their comfort levels with one another, might lead to increased participation. This aligns with responses from the first question such as "Sometimes people can be really rude." Getting students to know each other better might help in this area, and is an idea I would like to pursue more in this research.
The responses, "Encourage them to talk," "It depends on the teacher," and "A teacher should facilitate discussions first before expecting students to do it on their own" suggest to me that students rely heavily on the teacher's attitude and expectations towards the student and towards discussions. These responses also suggest that encouraging students is crucial to seeing successful discussions.
Both of my needs assessments helped inform my thinking on this idea of student voice and the goals I have for this action research. I want to increase student participation both in small groups and large groups, since I'm seeing that some students seem uncomfortable in small groups. I want to increase student comfort levels in the classroom, since that seemed to be part of the problem based on the individual student conferences I conducted. Most of all, I want students to feel like they have a voice in the class, and that what they say matters. I don't want students to feel unsure of whether they should share or not. I don't want to see students looking down at their feet or wondering whether they are in a safe enough place to share what they feel.
My questions
What happens when quiet students are encouraged to find their voice in the English Language Arts classroom?
- How will a focus on encouraging student voice affect participation in group discussions?
- How will a focus on encouraging student voice affect comfort levels when participating?
- How will a focus on encouraging student voice affect the classroom environment?
- How will a focus on encouraging student voice affect academic performance?