Inviting Silence as a Thinking Partner!

How many of us have been put into a group in class or a breakout room on Zoom with a prompt to talk about but absolutely no time to think of an answer before discussing? I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that we've all ben there. Usually what ends up happening is everyone saying "uhhhh, um" for about a minute while trying to think of what to say; this is not only awkward, but makes it harder to think of an answer. This is detrimental for student involvement as well as confidence speaking to others. 

The obvious solution to the problem is giving students more time to organize their thoughts before discussing, which is something that came to my mind when we talked about inviting silence as a "thinking partner" on day two during the media literacy presentation. However, this strategy can also be applied to technology usage in the classroom. If students are really going to use laptops and tablets as much as we say they will in the modern classroom, this comes with the reality of overexposure to screens. Students are likely looking at their phones during breaks and lunch as well, and coming into class to look at more screens right away is not what they need. 

I think students would benefit from five minutes of absolute silence at the beginning of the class period – not only silence in terms of talking, but a break from the "noise" of media as well. This short period of time for students to reset their brains and prepare for the intake of information could lead to a fresh set of minds in the classroom who are ready to be affective prosumers of media content! I plan on including this five-minute empty time period in my future classroom to give students a bit of a detox from their screens before diving back in.