Including the Quiet Student

My classes continue to do well with the Journal. I have had so many students volunteering to offer to present an article. And they are doing a terrific job with it. Some students are beginning to think that I will not call on people and are gambling on not being prepared. There are always pros and cons either way, and someone will think the easy way out.

One challenge from having such great participation is that my quiet students can easily hide. This is exactly what is happening in my classes right now. Part of this is remedied by calling on them from my grading list. In larger classes, I learn the names of active students much sooner than my quiet students so I am less likely to call on them early in the semester.

Another tactic I use to draw in all students is to solicit reactions on the presentation from students who do not actively contribute. Risky, but with a lot of positive reinforcement, I hope the students see how good it feels to contribute.

I have seen over the years using this exercise that many quiet students will become much more active in class once they have experienced a successful presentation. Because this is not a formal presentation and they choose the article to present, it can be a big confidence booster for the more formal presentation to come in the program. Many students have told me how much fun the discussions were even though they had rarely participated in class in the past. You can see it on their faces!

But it does not always work well. This past week I was summarizing and typing comments from my “Student Evaluations of Teaching” for my 2005 annual report. While comments on usage of the Wall Street Journal were overwhelmingly positive, as you would expect, it was not unanimous. Out of the 233 students I taught last year, only one (undergraduate) said that the current events discussions were too uncomfortable for him/her. A student normally will be called between one and three times in a semester if he or she does not volunteer. I do not envy this student for what is yet to come in upper-level business classes, and the required speech class.

But you cannot please everyone all the time in class. In fact, if I don’t have some students resistant to the something in the class, I usually know that I am not doing my job. I am here to facilitate learning and not everyone enjoys being stretched.

So if you have any concerns about using the Wall Street Journal in your classes, I would like to allay those concerns. Not everyone will be thrilled, but you will be greatly rewarded by the energy and success of the majority.