I'm in elementary and mostly teach 1st-3rd, and some 4th and 5th grades, and its interesting how wide the range is in the kids in terms of their fears. My 1st graders will do anything because most of them haven't developed fear in the classroom of, "What if I'm wrong?" and, "What will my friends think of me?" My 3rd graders seem to be just starting to feel intimidated and sometimes it takes just a little more encouragement to get the kids to participate. The 4th and 5th graders seem to really be at the point where they're developing a sense of themselves and how they fit in and tend to be very conscious of their grades, and possibility of being wrong, and what their friends think of them, that many of them tend to be silent in class. They're still at the age where mostly they want to be pleasing to others. So with the older kids, when I ask a question and am met with silence, I try to encourage them by telling them to take a guess and congratulating them when they take that chance, even if they are wrong.

With the younger kids, somtimes I use this same form of encouragement, but I guess I'm afraid that they are too young to understand that its ok to be wrong, so more often then not, I find myself telling kids that something was 'good,' or 'I like the way you're thinking,' even when it wasn't even close to the right answer. I'm afraid that if I don't sugar coat or twist my responses, that they'll stop taking chances in class, but I'm also afraid that I'm not doing the kids justice with my sugar coated responses.