The Art of Smiling

I believe myself to be a proficient discussion leader and especially attuned to non-verbal

communication; however, when I was looking at the additional readings, one of the potential gaps I
saw in my discussion strategies was in the emphasis on the art of smiling. The most powerful facial
expression is the smile, (http://www.classroom-management-success.org/non-verbal-cues.html).
The author goes on to detail that non-verbal cuing, number one of which is the smile, is an
inseparable component of discussion. Contrary to this, I thought that forced smiling would be
translated as insincere and that students would see right through it; my experiences testing out this
strategy inform me differently.
Granted, the majority population of the social group I chose to study are not actually capable of
holding a conversation let alone navigating the complexities of a discussion, and as parents caring
for little people, our discussions are distracted and often punctuated with comments such as, oh
booma! Are you ok? Nice way to pick yourself up. But the group, which I saw as two completely
different groups, was interesting to me. It presented challenges such as those noted above, and due
to the flat hierarchy of the setting, worked against a standard discussion format, but I was excited to
see how the group, students in particular, would respond to a forced change in my usual modus
operandi. As I conceived and delivered this activity, I kept thinking about the comment that I have
often heard one of my Parent /Child teachers say, little kids are very attune to the subtleties of
nonverbal communication. I wanted to test the smile on this group.
So smiles and all around. Interestingly enough after only a few minutes of forcing, the smile grew
on me. Im not pessimistic by any means, but I was surprised to see that the smile actually
improved my mindset and became natural; it was definitely not forced. Nevertheless, the grey
cloud cover wasnt so grey; the rain on the windows became light and inviting. Throughout the two
hour class I noticed that, more so than what is usual, students gravitated toward me. They also
played with me and hung around for more time as well. In effect, the smile had a magnetizing
effect so much so that at one point I had to stand up and engage my other constituency- the
parents- in order that the kids might socialize more with themselves than me.
The results with the Parent group were a bit less dramatic. The Parents were chatty, but they are
always chatty. I spoke a bit with everyone, but I do that every week as well. Considering my group
participants, I initiated a discussion about the developing habits of two year olds that I thought
would resonate with everyone in the room. It went well, had full parent participation, a definite line
of development, and an authenticity that I have found in other discussions I have initiated in the
past. On the whole, I found that the discussion was more productive than usual, possibly because
the kids were all so self-contained this week, but also potentially because I made a real effort to
draw out parent engagement though my smile, an affirmative nod, or an encouraging gesture; all
forms of nonverbal communication that were recommended in the readings.
I will remember this lesson for a number of reasons. A smile is easy. Selfishly enough and most
noticeably it improved my outlook on life, but it also proved to be both magnetizing and
encouraging in the two groups I studied. I might even be able to say that I counted twenty percent
more smiles within the group this week, but have to admit that my study needs further research.
However, extrapolating this experience and placing it within the Secondary English Literature
discussion I can see that just a simple smile could possibly increase student participation,

encourage exploration and risk-taking, and have a positive effect on student morale- all great stuff
regardless. In my classroom discussion persona thus far I have tried to maintain a balance of
easygoing smiling with critical questioning, but I think after this experience, I might favor the smile
for the benefits it encourages.