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Secret Systems

Materials required
Implementation procedure
Strategy in practice

  • Colored post-its (red/yellow/green)

  1. At the start of class, keep the colored post-its in a designated corner of the room.

  2. Explain to the students that each color depicts an emotion or feeling—red, if the students are not feeling up to participating in class; yellow, if the students want to participate but need more encouragement; green, if the students are enthusiastic about participating.

  3. Ask the students to pick up one of each post-it and take it back to their desk.

  4. As you proceed with class and draw upon students to participate, ask them to nudge the post-it color that reflects their mood to the front of their desk. Use the color as a secret system to know whom to encourage and whom to let be.

Before starting the class, Salman informs his students that there are post-its of three colors kept on a table next to the entrance of the room—pink, yellow, and green. He explains that these colors are indicative of the students’ moods: pink stands for “I do not feel like participating in class today”, yellow stands for “I would like to participate, but I need you to encourage me”, and green stands for “I am ready to participate.”

He asks the students to go to the table and pick at least one color each. Salman then begins the class. As he asks questions, he tells the students to show the post-its that they selected. Janice isn’t feeling great today, so she shows a pink post-it. Sam is a little reticent and shows the yellow post-it, while Jenny can’t wait to shout out the answer.

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As a result, Salman now asks Sam to present his thoughts in class and asks Jenny to contribute to Sam’s response. He also notes that he can have a separate conversation with Janice after class to understand how she’s feeling and guide her as needed.

References:

"Sandrine." (2016, October 19). Personal interview.

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