Anyone want an awesome alibi for intelligent students who are too eager and speak multiple times every day? One woman once came to me, concerned that I overlooked her frequently raised hand because she said stupid things or I didn’t like her. I reassured her—“no, your contributions are great, I want to hear from you—I’m just saving you for the hard questions.”
The first time I used this, it was 110% true, but it’s pretty much been true when I say it.
I once had a professor who told me “no, you shut up” when I started to speak, but she was my mentor and it was really funny. I was a bit miffed, because in my view I had paused to let other people have a chance, but apparently my own judgment of how long it takes people to think is a bit off. I’ve also been known to tell super-keen students that they are fast thinkers and it’s not fair of me to always go to the fast thinker. And then I use the “we’ll take a couple minutes while everyone jots down an answer in their notes” trick, which means the silence is natural, not heavy, and lets me call on quiet students.
Rate Your Students has a theme going on super-keen students. RYS needs category tags or at least a search box, I think, but this link will get you started and let you work backwards.
Prone to Laughter 
21 February 2008 at 1:40 pm
I am so using this. Thank you!
What I usually do is default to ‘wake up, you slackers’ mode with the rest of the room – “Okay, people, Katie’s working really hard here, and I’m not seeing much life from this corner of the room. Why don’t we give her a break and share the burden a bit, hmm?” Works fine if the class genuinely are slacking off in the knowledge Katie will jump in at every single question; works less well when they’re clearly trying to get a word in edgeways and failing.
21 February 2008 at 1:55 pm
Ooh, I love the “Katie’s working really hard”—added to my repertoire!
21 February 2008 at 3:31 pm
Ah, yes. I always saw straight through those, just FYI. Which made me realize I was being an ass, and shut up, and be more self-aware, which is good. But the trick didn’t work.
But what, pray, do you do when you are an MA student in a class of twelve and no one else speaks, ever? As in, you shut up. For minutes. And no one speaks. You are aware that you look like an asshole, but you also have things you feel need discussing. Because you are in, um, a seminar. A graduate seminar. And no one is talking. Except you. And the professor either doesn’t care, or is amused by your babbling inertia, because he does nothing to remedy the situation.
(Why do an MA if you don’t want to talk about books? Argh.)
24 February 2008 at 1:59 pm
Neo, you could have let me keep my illusion of being so cleverly manipulative. (Just kidding.)
MA seminars are a totally different issue—I think all profs have your back there. Although, might it be related to a different academic culture in the UK?
25 February 2008 at 6:13 pm
I didn’t realize what a keener I was until my first semester in grad school, when in class one day, I realized that I had spoken up three or four times in discussion, and nobody else had. But then, we came to the interpretation of a passage that I thought was really obvious, and I started in…. and then cut myself off by saying, “Oh. I should probably shut up now.” And I did. And I stayed shut up, until everybody had had a chance, and nobody saw the screamingly obvious, and I looked a question at the professor, who said, “Okay, go ahead.” And I did.
I was probably a serious pain-in-the-ass as an undergrad.