las muditas

This description of one professor’s efforts to help shy students find a voice in her classroom resonated with me because I was also one of those quiet students. I remember all too well that queasy feeling in my stomach, the flush that came over my face when I knew I was going to have to talk in class. Although I learned to manage it with time, it stuck with me even through grad school, so much so that a more outgoing classmate dubbed my friend and me “las muditas”* for our reticence in class. The nickname infuriated me, in large part because it reminded me of how frustrated I was with my own shyness. Eventually, I set myself a quota for speaking in class and just forced myself to do it.

In this article, the author describes setting students up for success in class discussions by letting them test out their comments via email before class, then calling on them at an appropriate moment during the discussion. This is such a brilliant strategy because it goes right to the heart of the fear and lets students manage that anxiety in small steps and on their own terms, with the teacher’s support. In my own classes, my goal is to create a classroom dynamic in which anyone who wants to can voice an opinion in some capacity during the class session. To that end, other strategies I’ve tried include giving students brief, in-class writing exercises--that I usually count on a completion basis toward a participation grade--so that no matter who I call on, most of them will have at least something to say and they will have gotten to process it in writing before having to say it aloud. I also do a lot of small-group activities before leading into a large-group discussion, so that students have a chance to bounce ideas off of one another and try them out without the pressure of speaking in front of the entire class. It’s a tricky balance, though, especially when weighed against the very real need to move through the course material. 

Creating a classroom that invites participation is important pedagogically, because hearing from a variety of perspectives enriches learning for all students even as articulating one’s own ideas verbally reinforces individual student learning. But it’s also important politically, especially when students don’t speak up because they feel their age, their gender, or their socioeconomic background are at odds with perceived--or actual--norms in the university community. I want students to tackle tough questions and respect different experiences and opinions and find ways to resolve conflicts because these are life skills that I want them to take with them. And I emphasize mutual respect in the classroom because, ultimately, that’s the kind of society I want to live in.

*the little mute ones