The "Questions/Comments Box" is a great way to give students the opportunity to communicate with me privately, anonymously or through the safe distance of note writing. With each of my classes at 32 students, it can be quite difficult to carve out the time to talk to individual students about their problems or answer their individual questions.
Usually the requests are pragmatic: "Can you move me away from Sandie? She talks too much" or "Can I be the pencil keeper next grading period?"
Sometimes, though, students write down more serious problems they're having with other students or questions they had about the lesson. The Questions/Comments Box frees me from dealing with difficult situations in the heat of the moment, and frees the students by giving them the feeling they're taking action without throwing a punch. When a student starts to complain in front of the whole class about another student, I simply say, "Write it down and put it in the Questions/Comments Box." This also helps with documentation if the situation is serious.
No comments:
Post a Comment