How can I help very shy students??

Question

I teach 15 and 16 year olds and a lot of them are very shy. I feel like I'm plucking teeth when I have class discussions or ask anyone students for their opinions on a particular topic! I have one girl in particular who I am quite worried about. She's 16 and becoming very shy. She hardly ever makes eye contact with me in the classroom. I try to talk to her after class an odd time and here she seems a lot more comfortable. She is an extremely intelligent and bright girl but I worry that she won't do well in her final exams as a quarter of the marks are for an oral exam. What puzzles me a lot is that I taught her a couple of years ago and she was very outgoing and bubbly...now ahe seems completely in her shell. Anyone have any similar experiences??

Answer 1

 I am 16 years old male. I feel that I am quite shy during some classes but outgoing during others, it may have to do with the enviroment as well as how the teacher teaches. I believe that many of the suggestions from users on here don't address the problem correctly. Simply trying to make a shy student more responsive and confident by forcing him/her into speaking in front of the whole class isn't going to work, in fact it will probably only create more problems. I remember those days freshmen year when my English teacher had each of us go up to the front of the room and say a few words about ourselves, oh how painful it was, butterflies in my stomach, face turning bright red, and eyes watering, it was a big humiliation on my part and I regretted it many months afterwards.

There are definitely other ways to help shy students become more confident in themselves and while speaking. Partnering up can work but it would be best to do it properly and to pay attention to students afterwards. I have found through countless experiences and discussion with other shy kids that assigning partners is the best rout to take and there is a good reason for that.The reason is that telling the students to find a partner usually results in the shy person being left out because they don't acquaint well with anyone and no one acquaints well with them because they are shy, this can be a hellish experience to many, the feeling of being left out of the class is spine chilling and will cause the shy student to dread whenever the phrase "partner up" is heard. I strongly recommend this method unless you know with 100% certainty  that all of the shy students in the classroom have some one to partner up with. Also one more thing, please don't try to treat each student the same way, try and attempt to mix thing up once and awhile so you can single out your treatment of the shy students while not revealing to other students that you are specifically speaking to the shy ones in a different way.This will make everyone feel more equal and it will disguise your true intentions of helping the shy students during class.