What's in a name?

Quick, nearly effortless tip that leads to surprising gains in student involvement.

“John has 10 apples and gives Jane half as many as Joe has…”

“Farmer Brown wants a reagent that would react with bromocyclopentane by an SN2 mechanism…”

“David Copperfield is researching famous magicians throughout history. Which of the following databases…”

“Paco and LaTisha write a total of 512 pages on what it is like to be pandered to on homework questions. If the logarithm of LaTisha’s page count is equal to…”

Do you use proper names on in-class activities, homework problems, tests, or projects?  Do you go with Michael, David, Emily and Emma? Or do you go “Modern” with Tyler and Madison? Maybe a cultural reference to a movie or celebrity that was popular before your students were born, or do you google to find some “hip” cultural reference that is on a blog post that a 40 year old content provider got from googling “What do the kids like these days?”

I plead Guilty. Sometimes, to amuse myself, I used to go overboard, using names of Laugh-In actors or 1940s actresses. But I also believed that Inclusion is important, and when I wrote my textbook, yes, it was Paco who threw the water balloon at a 30 degree angle from a height of 10 feet.  

A few years ago, just on a whim, I tried something else. And the result was intense. More positive and good than I possibly imagined, because (I will always be honest with you) people with names like “Doug Shaw” don’t usually think about what it is like for students who will never see their names printed on a damn souvenir keychain, let alone a test question about medians. This may seem like a silly tip to you – when I did it the first time I hardly thought of it as a “tip.”  But seriously – try this.

Whenever I use a proper name in a problem, or whenever I can work one in – I use the name of a student in my class. Quick and easy. And then in my gradebook, I make a check mark, so I know I’ve used that person.  I do it somewhat randomly, but give priority to students whose names probably aren’t appearing on “I was in South Dakota!” magnets at the truck stop.  Here’s a test question:

While I never asked Joi if they were nonbinary, I can tell you that Joi was not the name on my classlist. I can also tell you that in the margin of Exam 1, Joi wrote, “Hey! That’s me!” and never missed class again, and participated in the “pair and share” activities much more enthusiastically. “Doug” is not nearly as important to me as “Joi” was to Joi.

I don’t just go down my list looking for students in the minority. My Kaitlyns and Emmas and Jacobs and Ryans all get their turn, and also get a noticeable lift when they see themselves.

The sweetest sound to anyone’s ears is the sound of his own name - Robert Lee

Like always, I never expect you to take any tip of mine on faith. I’m saying this one is almost effortless to try, so go ahead and try it out, and let me know what you think!