Beyond the don’t say anything, just listen task which I guess can be adapted to suit all levels, with responses ranging from concrete to abstract and which I really look forward to trying…I do believe silence has a HUGE place in the classroom and it is thanks to ‘active’ silence that I’ve heard comments that have given me plenty of food for thought. I remember, when after a test, I asked ss if they thought the test tested what we’d learned….. and following a very long awkward silence, they said… not really…perhaps, if I hadn’t brought this topic to discussion and if we hadn’t endured the awkward silence, I wouldn’t have heard some very insightful comments which indeed contributed to our assessment cycle.
Lots of people talk about critical thinking these days, and I guess that in lessons where ss are asked to come up with reflective questions and to see things from different perspectives, silence should have a very important place. So thanks for somehow recognising the importance of silence.

Now I do hope your silence doesn’t endure that much and that you come back full of insightful ideas in the very near future. Cheers to your ‘silence rebirth’