Friday, September 25, 2009

I was talked over/Missed in stack/I was only allowed to talk once and ze talked 8 times!

I noticed during one of our first discussions that sometimes people are missed in stack (www.ucnuclearfree.org/misc/effective_facilitation.pdf Look to pg 2) and sometimes a stack is formed and then people jump in and cause those in line to miss their spots. The issue is that a few voices tend to dominate the discussion. I for one am probably one of them.

I have talked to a few people from class about this and most of them agree that something should be done to make sure people who have not spoken during class can speak. I suggest using the white board to write names down as they are in stack and also as a visual to those who do dominate the conversation. How do others feel about this? Is this even a real problem? Does everyone feel ok with taking stack?

4 comments:

Ani Reina said...

I forgot to mention that I would like a "weighted stack" to be used. This is also discussed on the pdf link above.

the attendant. said...

i support keeping count/stack.

Lela said...

and the fact is, in a class this large, not everyone who is waiting to speak is going to be able to or we will never move onto the next topic. so when i (or discussion leaders) move us along, it's not to silence anyone but to literally try to cover a broader range of texts/topics/issues. i generally try to call on hands that haven't been addressed yet even if it means skipping someone else. and of course some people are more apt and willing to talk than others, so we hear some voices more than others. this is a valuable discussion and i like the stack idea, as well. i'm open to different approaches to see what works best. my face-to-face classes are generally much smaller (and i will limit overrides in the future to avoid this problem--as well as to be sure everyone has a chair). also, you all have opportunities to address this personally; if you are a person who does not participate in class much, i encourage you to speak up more. if you are a person who talks frequently, limit your hand raising and save some of your comments for the blog. i value all of your input in the classroom but, with a class this large, we have to share the floor as much as possible. :D

Ari <3 said...

like. like. and like. <3