Single-Sex Education?

Today I separated our cohort of fourteen young people into two groups. The gentlemen accompanied me to Jeff's classroom to present their Our Dictionary entries. The ladies stayed behind in my classroom with a volunteer teacher, Liz.

I separated the students by gender because I wanted all class members to build confidence in public speaking. About three weeks ago I asked the students to make formal presentations, but the atmosphere that day was tense and uncomfortable. The lower proficiency students were embarrassed to speak in front of the group. The more verbally advanced students (who also happen to be male) aggressively questioned the presenters. One of the young ladies refused to present - a first this year.

I have made it a practice since the beginning of the school year to have students present their work formally to their classmates. So far, they have made 27 presentations. At the beginning of the year, most students participated by asking questions of presenters. I was impressed by their poise and confidence.

But as the year progressed and relationships developed among the students, they have been far less willing to contribute to an oral dialogue during class. Aware that many of the young ladies may have been intimidated by the overly exuberant men, I hatched the idea to split the group.

The young men in my group performed as I had expected. They challenged each other with some tough questions. They playfully teased one another about their lack of English skill and poor pronunciation. There were no hurt feelings.

According to Liz's report, the young ladies did a great job with their presentations. When I popped in my room to grab a paper at one point, one female student was asking question after question in English to the presenter. All the girls looked happy and excited.

I want to continue to have the students make presentations to their same-sex peers. I know that we will eventually have to come back together as one cohort for presentations, but for the moment, I want both groups to polish their craft without the judgmental eyes of the opposite sex.