A lecturer in English, Patch published a piece on the blog of the National Council of Teachers of English.
Paula Patch, lecturer in English, published “The Danger of Polite Silence: Five Strategies for Getting Students to Talk to One Another” on the National Council of Teachers of English blog.
Patch encourages teachers to provide space where students can have healthy discussions with respectful disagreement, and she uses a sample discussion in her own first-year writing course as a model. From the piece:
“Any conversation about gun control … could have gone terribly wrong. This time, however, everyone asked for and received a chance to speak, even students who usually stay silent, and they supported each other when there was disagreement. The energy was high and mostly positive. We let the discussion run long enough for the quieter, more thoughtful students to have a chance to listen, think, and respond. At the end of class, students who had heavily disagreed with one another made sure to resolve conflicts and smooth ruffled feathers before leaving.”
Patch modeled this approach on feminist composition pedagogy, which encourages the development of a critical consciousness, the questioning of traditional power dynamics and connecting classroom discussions to the outside world.
Putting this pedagogy into practice, Patch offers concrete teaching strategies that include the teacher not taking the lead, creating community in the classroom, reminding students that this space is safe, getting students comfortable with multiple perspectives, and always beginning with writing.
The full blog post is available here.