Many years ago, while teaching composition with a (relatively) small group of honors students, a student wrote me an email that forever changed the way I think of participation.
I approach composition through the lens of many years of training in creative writing courses. What does that sound and look like? We (creative writers) tend to read the written word aloud with a similar velvety cadence and emphasis. We tend to move the rows of desks into a circle so we can see one another at eye level. This used to feel like a radical, democratic space until I received this student’s email.
This student was a self-described introvert, and informed me that the circle of desks was an introvert’s worst nightmare. If you talk, then everyone looks at you. There’s nowhere to hide. When the desks are aligned in rows, some people might turn to look at a speaker, but most focus on tilting an ear to listen without making eye contact. The hedges of desks provide a protective shield from the circle’s critical gaze. This student assured me that if we reverted back to the desks in rows, there would be more participation from the students who tend to be quiet in open discussions, so that’s what we did, and that is what happened. I haven’t arranged all the desks in a room into a circle since.
Participation can be verbal, but it needn’t be limited to that. Now when I teach, my students participate in a variety of ways: independent in-class writing; Think-Pair-Share and Entry/Exit activities; small group discussions; taking collaborative notes; listening dyads; fishbowls; doodles; polls; gallery walks; and more.
Participation requires a lot of effort and labor: showing up on time, being present, limiting distractions, keeping up with the coursework, thinking and reflecting on the course materials, and contributing something to the class. All of these are reasons why participation makes up a minimum of 20% of my students’ final grades. It’s important, it’s expected, and I give credit where it’s due. It is SO far from an “easy A.” It’s the most active, rigorous part of the learning process and a crucial part of students’ professional development. If we want them to be citizens of the world, we ought to coach them on the variety of ways they can contribute and participate.
Co-Creating Expectations for Participation
On the first day of class, you can easily organize an activity that invites students to design participation expectations for the course. Below is a sketch of what that might look like, but you can revise and repurpose any of it to suit your needs. The key scaffolding that I wouldn’t take away is the warm up activity to get the conversation started.
10-Minute Warm Up:
- Write down all of the ways you can think of to participate in this class. What do you consider to be “participation”? What does that look, sound, feel like? (Allow 60 seconds for independent writing.)
- Find a partner and take turns sharing aloud what you wrote down. Whenever someone is sharing, try to listen without interrupting them. (Set a timer for 60 seconds and when the timer goes off, remind everyone to switch to the other person who hasn’t gone yet. Set another 60-second timer.)
- Now, go around the room and ask all the pairs to share what they talked about. They could do this verbally while you write their contributions as a list on the board. Or they could tape their writings up on the walls around the room and then walk around to read them all before discussing as a class.
- Expect some repetition, call that out in some way (e.g., add stars or check marks next to popular items on your collective list), but keep asking, “Is there anything else? Anything you noted that isn’t already on the board?” The discussion ought to include a consideration of inclusivity (e.g., neurodiversity) and accessibility, and you may need to guide it there if the students don’t raise those points themselves.
10 Minutes for Group Work:
- Drawing from the collective list of ways to participate in the warm up, students can work in groups of 4-5 people to develop some course expectations or parameters for participating and engaging in the course. You might have all groups do this, or give specific roles to different groups. For example, some groups might focus on attendance requirements, some might focus on ways to engage in and contribute to the course, and other groups might focus on ways to assess participation. Each group is responsible for coming up with a minimum of one point or one sentence for the class to consider incorporating into the syllabus.
[You can stop here, collect everything and put all of this together into some course expectations yourself, then share them with the class and ask students for their input the next time you meet. Or, if you have time in class, you could keep going…]
20 Minutes for Class Deliberation:
- Each group shares just one main point/idea/sentence for the class to consider, and students from other groups weigh in to comment, edit, add to them. You could share all of these in one Google Doc or on the board and organize them into priorities (e.g., take a vote on which are most important).
You might end up with a list of questions, or a neat and organized outline of course expectations ready to incorporate into the syllabus. It’s impossible to know where students will take this, so you’ll need to pivot accordingly to respond to their questions, suggestions, and ideas in a way that feels right to you as an instructor. What is certain is that they will be alert, engaged, and invested in the class community that they helped to shape.
If I hadn’t created the conditions for my students to play active roles in shaping my courses, I don’t know if that self-described introvert would have reached out to tell me what I didn’t know about my class. My students persistently surprise me with their insights and their kindness. If something doesn’t go the way you expect, an easy fix is to ask them what went wrong and what y’all could do differently going forward.
