#5 Cold Call a student twice in a lesson
It will make sure students don't drift off once they have had their turn
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💡 A quick tip to try in class this week 💡
Cold Calling students is a great alternative to asking for volunteers, becuase the teacher chooses which students to ask and therefore creates an environment where everyone has a greater incentive to think hard about the answer.
But let's imagine you have Cold Called a student called Harry early on in the lesson.
What is Harry thinking now? Probably something along the lines of:
Nice one, I have done my answer. There are another 29 students in the class to who he hasn’t asked a question yet, so I am pretty safe to have a sit-off.
And Harry is probably right to think that. As teachers, we try to ensure we hear from as many different voices in a lesson as possible, and having heard from Harry early on, we are probably going to focus our attention elsewhere.
A good way to shatter that norm is to occasionally return to a student that has previously been Cold Called. Often teachers do that when students have answered a question incorrectly, but we should also do it when students have got a question right. The key here is to make it explicit:
Harry, I would like you to answer this one. I know you have already answered a question a few minutes ago, but in this class, you could be asked a question at any time
The price we pay is we may hear from one fewer student in a lesson, but the benefit is we create an environment where all students are on their toes and thinking no matter if they have already contributed to the lesson or not.
What would you need to change to make this tip work for you?
When could you try it for the first time?
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📺 A video to discuss with a colleague 📺
Kate Jones explains the importance of the Encoding Specificity Principle for helping our students remember things.
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👂 A podcast episode to listen to on your way home 👂
Assessment expert, Daisy Christodoulou, shares her five tips:
Review every lesson plan in terms of what the student is thinking about
Ask a question at the end of every lesson that every student should be able to get right
Don’t do written comments
Use examples, not definitions, when teaching & assessing
Get your pupils to spell their name backwards
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