Circling Protocols
When circling, certain protocols must be established immediately about what kind of comments are acceptable in response to your questions. The student is always the star. We must always keep in mind the fragile nature of the egos of most of our students, in spite of how they may behave in class.
Kids in secondary school are arguably in the most sensitive years of their lives. Therefore, if you are circling information about a certain student, and another student makes a comment about his real life girlfriend or some other personal bit of information that is private to the child, divert the discussion and caution the students about keeping things in the realm of the imagined.
Any comment that is made at the expense of someone must be refuted by the teacher in a lighthearted way, but it must be made clear, even if a parent conference is necessary, that no such comments will be allowed.
Always keep comprehension based discussion firmly in the realm of fun possibilities and odd ideas. Teach the class that attempts at humor at a classmate’s expense will not be tolerated. If a student does not feel safe in your classroom, she cannot learn.