In the current difficult environment, friends teaching at colleges and universities asked for advice. Here's the trick: create an environment where learning time counts and every student’s voice counts. Position yourself as the guardian of learning time, and solicit student responses and input on a regular basis. What you use on an ongoing basis is what you also use to allow students to respond to the disruptor(s).
After students have had a chance to read through the syllabus, explain that their first homework assignment will be to contribute to a Google spreadsheet as follows: Column A, first name. Column B, last name. Column C, in one sentence, what do you want to know and be able to do at the end of the semester? For example, “I want to learn something about all the cultures in the syllabus and be able to read faster.” Stress that any response is fine, but that it will be a public document – don’t write anything that you don’t want the other students to see. In the next class, summarize the kinds of responses you got. Copy the spreadsheet to Excel, and keep it on the desktop of the computer that’s connected to the screen. As you teach, refer to students’ goals: “For those of you who wanted to practice faster reading, Delta’s article is good for that. The section headings are unusually informative, and the conclusion quite thorough. Try reading those, ask yourself three questions that they raise for you, and read with the specific purpose of finding answers to those questions.” BUT, if you face for example five students who disrupt by humming audibly, shuffling papers audibly, that is, an ongoing low grade infuriating disruption, maximize the Excel spreadsheet so that everyone can see it, and say, “This constant shuffling of papers, how is it contributing to your classmates meeting their goals? How is it contributing to your classmates meeting their goals? How is it contributing to your classmates meeting their goals?” Repeat like a broken record until the disruption subsides. If it starts again later, repeat again. At some point another student is likely to turn around and say, “IT’S NOT! Right? Obviously you’re making noise on purpose! Cut it out! The rest of us are here to learn!”
Post your objectives for each class at the beginning: “Contrast the arguments of the articles by Able, Baker and Charlie.” Whatever. Reserve a couple of minutes at the end of each class to review the objective(s). You don’t have to have met them. It's equally good if you can say, “We didn’t get to Charlie, but in response to So-and-So’s question… who asked that question? You in the third row there? What’s your name again? Thank you, Name – the time spent answering your question was well worth it. We’ll come back to Charlie next time, or we’ll skip it, I’ll decide later and let you know.” This sends the message that time is valuable, you are flexible rather than defensive, but you are the Guardian of Time.
Use think-pair-share as follows: You announce that there will be a think-pair-share: 30 quiet seconds to think, 2 minutes to talk to the person sitting next to you, and then 4 students will share. Write the question on the screen, for example, “What strikes you as most interesting about X?” If people talk during the thirty seconds, say quietly but firmly, “Please be respectful of others who may need this time to gather their thoughts.” When the 2 minutes are over, the first time you do this, demonstrate how you’re going to ensure that everyone has a turn at least once during the semester: go to random.org, and then “randomize list.” Copy your class list into it and hit randomize. The top four people share. If by chance two members of a pair come up, skip to the next name. Emphasize that you wish you could hear from everybody every time, but in a large lecture class, that’s just not possible. The second time, say, “You saw how I chose people to share before. This time, I’m not going to show you the process. [hit “freeze screen”] I’m going to randomize the remaining students, but I’m going to save the randomized list for further use, because I don’t want to spend the time on randomizing every single time we do a think-pair-share. But, I want you all preparing to speak every time, so I don’t want you to know how the list came out.” When somebody asks a difficult and perhaps hostile question – “Doesn’t this all basically come down to you manipulating us into feeling sorry for these people?” smile and say, “Let’s all answer that. Think-pair-share. Here’s the timer…. 30 seconds starts now.”
Quick write: This is useful for checking comprehension. In my college teaching experience, you have to make the question pretty factual or they will try to treat it like a midterm and write forever. But, that was Yale and I’ve never had that problem at the high school level. “I’m going to pose a question, and you all have 3 minutes to write a response. Get out a blank piece of paper, write your name on it, and at the end of 3 minutes you will pass it to the aisles. I will not grade these except checking that you answered it. I’m going to ask, ‘what sticks in your mind about today’s class so far?’ If your answer is, ‘I’m sorry, my mind was wandering,’ that’s fine – if twenty people answer that way that tells me something I need to know [laugh ironically].” Next class, comment on what they wrote. Do this regularly for normal, stress-free questions, and it becomes another way to transfer responsibility for answering difficult/hostile questions to the class. (Another good format for the quick write is 3/2/1: 3 words that are new to you, 2 things you have learned, 1 question you have. If you get a lot of incomplete answers after 3 minutes, modify.)
There’s an app for it: plickers.com. A plickers card allows a student to register an answer, A, B, C or D without any other student knowing which answer they chose. You print them out, laminate them and tell students to bring them to every class. You say, “Which of the following is NOT an important feature of X?” Everyone holds up their card. You take a picture of the class with your cell phone. The app gives you a graph of how many students chose each letter. You then reflect, “Great, I see that almost everyone understands that Answer C relates to Y, rather than to X. But not everyone, so are there any questions? No? Moving on then.” Or, “Uh-oh, quite a bit of confusion on this point, let me explain again.” But a little later, this can be used for class input: “When we do think-pair-share, is 30 seconds to think too little time (A) , just right (B), or should we just go straight to talking to partners (C)?” And then you can use this for the situation of a student who just won’t let go of a hostile discussion. If you’re feeling done and wanting to move on, say, “Ok, we’ve spent 5 minutes on this,” (You know, because you surreptitiously hit the count-up timer on your desktop when the student started in, as you always do when a question interrupts the flow of the lecture). “I’ll leave it up to the class whether to spend more time on it. A is yes, B is no. Hold up your plickers cards…. Thank you!.... Hmm. Only two people want to hear more of this discussion. Sorry.”
The cat call / somebody hits you with a piece of wadded up paper / the whistle: the contentless disruption. Turn slowly to the class, which you will have to do because nobody ever disrupts in this way when the teacher can see who it is. Say calmly, “When I am interrupted in this way, I need to pause and take five deep breaths to recover my poise.” Take five slow and obvious deep breaths. Continue your lecture. Second time: “You know, I feel quite Zen-like in merely needing five deep breaths. Many of your high schools would have suspended a student who disrupted a class in this way.” Take your deep breaths, let that sink in, give eye contact to the students who are nodding in agreement. Third time, the math: “These disruptions take 30 seconds from everybody. With 70 students in the class, that’s 35 minutes of other people’s learning time. How much are you paying in tuition? I can’t see who is doing this, but you can.” Fourth time: “Let’s do a quick write on the question of whether I should ask the dean to observe our next class.” (Never mind if you know that the dean won’t do it – they don’t know that.) End of class summary: “We didn’t manage to get to Charlie’s article. That’s because somebody – I don’t know who – robbed us of several minutes. This is how disruptions impact everyone’s ability to meet their goals for this class. Personally, if I were you, I would have a quiet word with whoever it was after class.”
After students have had a chance to read through the syllabus, explain that their first homework assignment will be to contribute to a Google spreadsheet as follows: Column A, first name. Column B, last name. Column C, in one sentence, what do you want to know and be able to do at the end of the semester? For example, “I want to learn something about all the cultures in the syllabus and be able to read faster.” Stress that any response is fine, but that it will be a public document – don’t write anything that you don’t want the other students to see. In the next class, summarize the kinds of responses you got. Copy the spreadsheet to Excel, and keep it on the desktop of the computer that’s connected to the screen. As you teach, refer to students’ goals: “For those of you who wanted to practice faster reading, Delta’s article is good for that. The section headings are unusually informative, and the conclusion quite thorough. Try reading those, ask yourself three questions that they raise for you, and read with the specific purpose of finding answers to those questions.” BUT, if you face for example five students who disrupt by humming audibly, shuffling papers audibly, that is, an ongoing low grade infuriating disruption, maximize the Excel spreadsheet so that everyone can see it, and say, “This constant shuffling of papers, how is it contributing to your classmates meeting their goals? How is it contributing to your classmates meeting their goals? How is it contributing to your classmates meeting their goals?” Repeat like a broken record until the disruption subsides. If it starts again later, repeat again. At some point another student is likely to turn around and say, “IT’S NOT! Right? Obviously you’re making noise on purpose! Cut it out! The rest of us are here to learn!”
Post your objectives for each class at the beginning: “Contrast the arguments of the articles by Able, Baker and Charlie.” Whatever. Reserve a couple of minutes at the end of each class to review the objective(s). You don’t have to have met them. It's equally good if you can say, “We didn’t get to Charlie, but in response to So-and-So’s question… who asked that question? You in the third row there? What’s your name again? Thank you, Name – the time spent answering your question was well worth it. We’ll come back to Charlie next time, or we’ll skip it, I’ll decide later and let you know.” This sends the message that time is valuable, you are flexible rather than defensive, but you are the Guardian of Time.
Use think-pair-share as follows: You announce that there will be a think-pair-share: 30 quiet seconds to think, 2 minutes to talk to the person sitting next to you, and then 4 students will share. Write the question on the screen, for example, “What strikes you as most interesting about X?” If people talk during the thirty seconds, say quietly but firmly, “Please be respectful of others who may need this time to gather their thoughts.” When the 2 minutes are over, the first time you do this, demonstrate how you’re going to ensure that everyone has a turn at least once during the semester: go to random.org, and then “randomize list.” Copy your class list into it and hit randomize. The top four people share. If by chance two members of a pair come up, skip to the next name. Emphasize that you wish you could hear from everybody every time, but in a large lecture class, that’s just not possible. The second time, say, “You saw how I chose people to share before. This time, I’m not going to show you the process. [hit “freeze screen”] I’m going to randomize the remaining students, but I’m going to save the randomized list for further use, because I don’t want to spend the time on randomizing every single time we do a think-pair-share. But, I want you all preparing to speak every time, so I don’t want you to know how the list came out.” When somebody asks a difficult and perhaps hostile question – “Doesn’t this all basically come down to you manipulating us into feeling sorry for these people?” smile and say, “Let’s all answer that. Think-pair-share. Here’s the timer…. 30 seconds starts now.”
Quick write: This is useful for checking comprehension. In my college teaching experience, you have to make the question pretty factual or they will try to treat it like a midterm and write forever. But, that was Yale and I’ve never had that problem at the high school level. “I’m going to pose a question, and you all have 3 minutes to write a response. Get out a blank piece of paper, write your name on it, and at the end of 3 minutes you will pass it to the aisles. I will not grade these except checking that you answered it. I’m going to ask, ‘what sticks in your mind about today’s class so far?’ If your answer is, ‘I’m sorry, my mind was wandering,’ that’s fine – if twenty people answer that way that tells me something I need to know [laugh ironically].” Next class, comment on what they wrote. Do this regularly for normal, stress-free questions, and it becomes another way to transfer responsibility for answering difficult/hostile questions to the class. (Another good format for the quick write is 3/2/1: 3 words that are new to you, 2 things you have learned, 1 question you have. If you get a lot of incomplete answers after 3 minutes, modify.)
There’s an app for it: plickers.com. A plickers card allows a student to register an answer, A, B, C or D without any other student knowing which answer they chose. You print them out, laminate them and tell students to bring them to every class. You say, “Which of the following is NOT an important feature of X?” Everyone holds up their card. You take a picture of the class with your cell phone. The app gives you a graph of how many students chose each letter. You then reflect, “Great, I see that almost everyone understands that Answer C relates to Y, rather than to X. But not everyone, so are there any questions? No? Moving on then.” Or, “Uh-oh, quite a bit of confusion on this point, let me explain again.” But a little later, this can be used for class input: “When we do think-pair-share, is 30 seconds to think too little time (A) , just right (B), or should we just go straight to talking to partners (C)?” And then you can use this for the situation of a student who just won’t let go of a hostile discussion. If you’re feeling done and wanting to move on, say, “Ok, we’ve spent 5 minutes on this,” (You know, because you surreptitiously hit the count-up timer on your desktop when the student started in, as you always do when a question interrupts the flow of the lecture). “I’ll leave it up to the class whether to spend more time on it. A is yes, B is no. Hold up your plickers cards…. Thank you!.... Hmm. Only two people want to hear more of this discussion. Sorry.”
The cat call / somebody hits you with a piece of wadded up paper / the whistle: the contentless disruption. Turn slowly to the class, which you will have to do because nobody ever disrupts in this way when the teacher can see who it is. Say calmly, “When I am interrupted in this way, I need to pause and take five deep breaths to recover my poise.” Take five slow and obvious deep breaths. Continue your lecture. Second time: “You know, I feel quite Zen-like in merely needing five deep breaths. Many of your high schools would have suspended a student who disrupted a class in this way.” Take your deep breaths, let that sink in, give eye contact to the students who are nodding in agreement. Third time, the math: “These disruptions take 30 seconds from everybody. With 70 students in the class, that’s 35 minutes of other people’s learning time. How much are you paying in tuition? I can’t see who is doing this, but you can.” Fourth time: “Let’s do a quick write on the question of whether I should ask the dean to observe our next class.” (Never mind if you know that the dean won’t do it – they don’t know that.) End of class summary: “We didn’t manage to get to Charlie’s article. That’s because somebody – I don’t know who – robbed us of several minutes. This is how disruptions impact everyone’s ability to meet their goals for this class. Personally, if I were you, I would have a quiet word with whoever it was after class.”