... Honest questions make for awkward silences...

Three of my students didn't do the reading on Monday, so I hung the three of them up on a clothes line by their ears, and everyone took turns throwing chalk at them.

... just kidding.

I honestly didn't know what to say. I decided to steal Darcy's quote-passing activity to get discussions going, and as quotes were passed, three students ended up without quotes to work with. Two students said they weren't able to get the reading (even though I made sure to show them how to get it the Friday before), and another said he hadn't finished it (he'd read the first page). "How can you participate unless you read the material? More importantly, how can your classmates participate now that you can't contribute a quote for them to work with? This is an honest question, guys." ... I found myself in a very quiet room, and so I asked if the students sitting next to the students without quotes could share the one they received, and we moved on.


For a brief moment, I thought about sending the students out to go read the article, but being absent from class wouldn't do them any good, and I also wanted to talk about citing their sources... if they were gone from that, it would just be more stress for them and for me to have to re-tell them what they missed; besides, I'm not their disciplinarian. That's not a role I'm here to play.

SO... I think I scared them enough - I did tell them last week that I "reserve the right" to give them response papers to each reading if I think they're not doing the work. Maybe that fact will have to come up again.