This year I have one very chatty class. The class is designed to facilitate chat, but this group is way above the norm. It is a small first year seminar. 16 students, all first year students. Very diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender. The purpose of the class is to provide an introduction to college, provide some cultural experiences, and generally facilitate the transition. Since I serve as the academic advisor for these students as well, I will see them several times over the course of the year. The class itself meets only for 2 more weeks.
I try to encourage the students to talk. I have lots of questions that they all must answer each week--favorite class, hardest class, favorite food in the cafeteria, advice they wished they had gotten before coming, etc. But this group just TALKS all the time. I have to resort to the elementary school tricks of clapping my hands, standing quietly, or reminding them of the rules to get them to settle down. I bring snacks to class, we sit around a big table, all things designed to make the class informal and to encourage TALKING. Boy, does it work with this group.
There are a few quieter students and I wonder sometimes if they wish the rest of the group would just "shut up." I think I might have been one of those students in my college years. I would have wanted to let the teacher talk, to be a good student, to follow the rules. I'm glad my students are willing to talk over me, around me, and right by me. I like that.
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