Teachers can
have a negative or positive effect on shy students. Teachers who interpret shy behavior as
willful or spiteful may punish the students for remaining silent when asked to
sing or to speak. Punishing shy behavior
makes no more sense than punishing urination accidents. It is more likely to cause emotional harm to
the students than to help the child develop.
Teachers who
view helping students become more outgoing as a developmental project similar
to helping the student learn to read or share toys may have quite a positive
impact on shy students. Teachers can use
the following nine strategies to help shy students become more outgoing:
1.
Put
children in pairs or other small groups and lead them into an activity that
requires interaction.
Here are a few examples for young students:
Pair students and ask them to hold hands when they go somewhere outside class.
Ask two students to play together one day. With two or three students, play a
group game, such as emotions charades, or a fantasy game, such as firefighters
working together to rescue someone.
2.
Prompt interaction between students.
One way to
do this is to give the shy students the words to say to another person, for
example, “Juan, ask that boy what his name is.” Or, “If you don't know the
answer to a question, you can say, ‘I don't know.’” Or, “Say that you want to
play too.” If speaking by a shy student is out of the question for the moment,
encourage nonverbal communication. Waving hello is much better than making no
response to a greeting. Another way of prompting involves talking to one child
and to another in a way that encourages them to talk together. For instance:
“Christine, I see that you're pretending to be a doctor. Ben makes a great
patient. Ben, tell the doctor where you hurt.” Or: “Jizreel, you have a dog and
Nickie does.
3.
Give shy students plenty of time to respond to
questions or to speak to the class.
Don't rush
to speak for them, for instance, during show-and-tell. Be patient -- it may
take them a while to overcome their nervousness and speak. If the child doesn't answer after a period of
several seconds, go on pleasantly to the next child or activity.
4.
Show empathy and understanding.
By
commenting in a caring way on a shy students apparent emotion, such as
nervousness or embarrassment, you can help the students learn to identify those
emotions. By talking about similar emotions you experienced either recently or
when you were a student, you can show the student that the emotions are OK and
that it is all right to talk about them. Identifying and talking about the
emotions may help the student control them.
5.
Show warmth.
Play with
all the students, compliment them, speak nicely to them, and show interest in
them. All students like being treated warmly, but shy students may gain the greatest benefit from being “warmed”
up.
6.
Reward outgoing behavior.
Praise
students when they interact in a positive way with another classmate. Set the
reward standard lowers for shy students and gradually require more outgoing
behavior for praise. So, you might initially praise a shy student for raising
three fingers in answer to the question what is one plus two. Later, you might
require her to say “three” in order to receive praise. Still, later, you might
require her to say “three” appropriately loud to receive praise.
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