How to manage very weak students presenting problem solutions? In some of my more advanced classes, I have students present solutions to problems on a rotating basis.  Not all solutions are perfect, but for almost all students this goes okay.  However, sometimes there is a student X who seems incapable of solving all but the most trivial problems (and cannot always do those correctly).  I am unsure whether X is even aware of the difference between themself and the rest of the class (my impression is they are not), but the X's presentations are not pleasant for the rest of the class, and probably not for X either.  They typically involve me or other students making several corrections, taking 2-3x as long as needed (and the problems X has gotten so far have pretty easy already), then me eventually cutting of X and saying "Okay, all you do is [...].  Next."


  I was contemplating only giving this student trivial problems to present.
  Is this a good idea? Are there better ideas?


My concern about doing this is that it will probably be obvious to the rest of the class if X is routinely getting significantly easier problems to present.  It may also be obvious to X, though that is less clear--if so, I can imagine it might be embarrassing.  (And if X cannot successfully solve those, it would be more embarrassing.)  Not letting X present would probably be the most embarrassing.  Right now, my inclination is to let X's problems naturally vary between trivial and normal, based on the rotation, but make an attempt to keep hard problems away from X.

Another option is to say something to X, but I am not sure what, apart from suggesting X check their solutions with another student before presenting.  One thing I definitely want to avoid is teaching X individually outside of class.  Based on previous interactions, this could quickly become a time sink, and I am too busy already.
There are at least two+ different issues: (1a) your suffering (1b) suffering of the other students, (2) the obliviousness or incompetence or low-energy of the individual student. The easiest argument that there's something needing repair is that the other students shouldn't have to suffer, in any case.

My anecdotal evidence indicates that whether it's obliviousness or incompetence or some sort of lethargy, any one of these can be an essentially fatal obstacle, and is not within anyone else's power to change in the short term. Maybe long-term. Giving easier problems will not be understood as such, and can have the effect of passively "confirming" the inadequate strategies of that individual.

So: time limits on presentations, at least. Perhaps "failure limitations", too, meaning that a certain smaller window is allowed to persuade the audience that things are going in the right direction. This criterion gives a device to get failing performances off the stage and not waste other peoples' time.

Similarly, in my experience, it is possible to spend unlimited amounts of time on some students "with problems", thinking to "lift them out of failure", but have essentially no impact on them. Don't do it. Allocate the reasonable amount of time, and then stop. This is absolutely not an argument against spending time and energy on students (a.k.a. "teaching"), but is an argument against pretending that one has infinite personal resources, and against pretending that bad allocation doesn't harm other parts of the enterprise.

Possibly time to mention the Dunning-Krueger syndrome again, too? That is, that sometimes the most problemmatic scenarios are those in which someone lacks the meta-cognition to understand that they "even have problems". If someone has already passed/failed that filter, the chances are slim that you can call on their meta-cognitive faculties to help them... Sadly.

So, you cannot deny weak students resources, but don't misallocate so as to harm others. And the cost to you yourself should be limited. One does not have unlimited responsibility (in time or energy) to students. Definite responsibility, yes, but definitely limited.