When High School Classrooms are Too Quiet

All too often, high school administrators mistake quiet classrooms for those in which authentic, meaningful learning is taking place.  Unfortunately, it is common to do a walk through in any given high school, peek into a lecture, and assume that the neat, silent rows of teenagers are absorbing the teacher's every word.  By the time adolescents reach high school, they have become experts at "playing the game" and looking like they are listening just to get through their mundane, meaningless fifty or ninety-minute long courses.


Who can blame them?  Current brain research states that the average length of the human attention span has decreased from twelve seconds in 2000 to just eight in 2012 ("Statistic brain," 2012).  This means that during a traditional lecture-style lesson on a block schedule, the typical teenage brain shifts thought and loses focus 675 times!  Surely some, if not most, of the material being taught leaks through that many cracks.  To avoid this ineffectiveness, teachers need to use creativity and innovative techniques, particularly those related to collaboration and discussion, to build student-centered, interesting, and engaging classrooms; tools and resources for making this imperative pedagogical transition abound.  


Even in school districts with limited financial means, teachers need only to check their supply closets and workrooms to productively energize their lessons and students.  Using large chart paper, tape, markers, and prodding questions or statements relating to relevant topics, teachers can engage students in a silent discussion activity; to participate, students move around the perimeter of the room to a set timer, informally recording their responses to questions and comments and contributing to someone else's "posts".  They may not speak during the rotations, but they may draw arrows from the original question or another's contribution and add their own thoughts, pose a new pertinent question, agree or disagree with an opinion, or expound upon an idea.  When students have contributed to each statement or question, they go back to the one at which they started and evaluate their classmates' answers.  After a few minutes of analysis, they report on the best or most interesting comments to the class; this generates verbal discussion if done correctly.   


For teachers who don't mind researching new techniques and approaches, The National Paideia Center maintains a wealth of information about classroom discussion strategies.  During a classroom Paideia discussion, the teacher assumes the role of a facilitator, and the students fill the roles of the participants.  Unless students are not following directions, the facilitator must not contribute to the class discussion.  His or her only responsibility is to pose a question or an agree/disagree statement to the class, and then let them talk about the issue.  During the "roundtable-like" class conversation (the desks or chairs should form a complete circle), the facilitator maintains minimal eye contact and listens closely to record the contributions of each student.  Participants are not allowed to raise their hands; instead, they practice authentic discussion formats and good manners.  Each participant earns points by making frequent contributions, following the rules, refraining from dominating the discussion, and engaging more reluctant peers.  At the end of the activity, which according to experts can last for an entire class period with teenagers, participants compose a journal entry response to the day's discussion not only documenting what they learned, but also evaluating themselves and their classmates on the quality of discussion itself.  This serves as an effective formative assessment to check for student understanding (The National Paideia Center, 2012).  

Teachers with access to class sets of classroom computers and the Internet may find Collaborize Classroom to be an excellent tool for getting students to apply essential questions and information through debate and dialogue.  Through this free, web-based resource, teachers can pose thought-provoking, relevant information to students through articles, images, videos, or even simple questions.  Students can not only respond to the teacher's prompts and peer comments and questions, but they can also research their own discussion prompts and interesting material to pose to their peers.  Because the teacher controls who participates in and views this virtual classroom, there is no threat to the students' Internet safety.  


Instead of nodding in approval of boring, sedentary, disengaging lessons through the windows of high school classroom doors all over the United States, secondary principals and administrators should celebrate the dynamic, energized, productive organized chaos of student-centered lessons and applaud teachers and students willing to try new engaging learning techniques; that is when and where real learning takes place.  Perhaps principals can even find time in their busy schedules to step in and participate in a discussion about Romeo as a petrarchian lover, global warming as a threat to humanity, the platforms of candidates for political offices, or the currently unsolved Goldbach Conjecture .  Who knows what their students can teach them?


References
[Image of globe and computer mice]. n.d. Retrieved from https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/100388081399064240522/albums/5760715408503595553/5760996794919019474
[Photograph of students sleeping in class].  n. d. Retrieved from http://ap018.edublogs.org/
[Photograph of silent discussion poster]. n. d. Retrieved from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/courses/pppp/f11/photos/silentboard1
[Image of Paideia Active Learning logo]. n. d. Retrieved from http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/blog_grant_zimmerman/7_billion_people_student_activity
[Photograph of students in circle talking]. n.d. Retrieved from https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/100388081399064240522/albums/5760715408503595553/5760996794919019474
Statistic brain. (2012, Janua 30). Retrieved from http://www.statisticbrain.com/attention-span-statistics/
The National Paideia Center. Paideia Active Learning. Retrieved 3 July 2012 from The National Paideia Center: http://paideia.org/