Boosting Student Participation with Circulate and Encourage Strategy (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Circulate and Encourage is a simple, non-threatening way to increase student participation in class discussions, especially with those children who tend not to raise their hands due to shyness or lack of confidence. Here's how it works. Imagine that I'm reading a story aloud to my students about a girl who needs to overcome a difficult obstacle to solve a problem. At the conclusion of the story, I want to highlight the different character traits the girl displays, so I ask everyone which traits, in their opinion, help her the most. After posing the question, I give everyone approximately 15 to 30 seconds of what I like to call quiet think time. This initial step levels the playing field by providing all children with the chance to process the question and generate a thoughtful response. Without this think time, faster thinkers are likely to raise their hands first and dominate the conversation, and this discourages widespread participation. Next, I ask my students to do a pair share, in which each child discusses the question with the neighbor. Here's where the Circulate and Encourage strategy comes into play. While the kids are talking in pairs, I move around the room and listen in on these conversations, paying particularly close attention to the contributions of students who tend not to raise their hand. Assume I hear one of these children, whom we'll call George, make a strong point to his partner. I compliment that idea, let George know that I think everyone else in the class would benefit from hearing it, and inform him that I will be calling on him first when our whole group discussion starts. After the pair share, I bring everyone together and ask George to share his idea. Because he knows he will be chosen, and has already received positive feedback for his idea, he is likely to present his thought confidently. When he does, I again compliment the idea and explain to the class why I thought everyone should hear it. George's confidence will rise, and he'll be more likely to volunteer in the future because of this positive experience.