A series of short posts, focusing on the challenges of teaching all students successfully, informed by lesson observations

A common observation from the back is how often in a lesson a teacher will hear only one person’s answer to a question and then assume that, with the answer having been said aloud, everyone else will now know it. It’s common for teachers to tell me they feel that it would be weird or pointless to repeat a question that’s just been asked.

However, often without the teacher realising, it’s really very common to find that multiple students did not process whatever was said and, counter to the teacher’s assumption – they still don’t know the answer even though someone else just said it – or, as least, their version of it.

Things said just don’t automatically sink in somehow. Hearing something is not the same as processing it and then making it stick. However, the hearing part is at least a start. Quite often in class – particularly, but not exclusively, with younger children – the answers given from one child are simply not audible beyond their immediate classmates; their response isn’t loud or clear enough to travel across the room. It pays to repeat and ask someone else from across the space just to check for hearing. But it goes beyond that…

In our Cold Calling walkthru, step five is a powerful element – in our view:

If James suggests that the answer is ‘Mogadishu’ or ‘carbon dioxide’ or ‘pathetic fallacy’ or ‘343’. or ‘je n’aime pas le fromage’ .. what are the chances of that nugget of knowledge radiating out into the room so that everyone else now also knows? It’s low. Of course, we could ask all these questions with show-me boards – but, a lot of the time, in the organic flow of class discourse, that’s just not appropriate. Even if you use them a lot, you don’t always want written answers – you want thinking followed by verbal answers.

So it pays handsomely to ask at least one other student the same question – if not three or four. Why? Because by repeating the question and getting further answers you get a combination of :

Consolidation. If the answer repeated is the same or also correct, some students including the respondents, the repetition provides some over-learning, a chance to firm up their understanding. It’s confirmatory to repeat a correct answer.

Alternatives: Students might give the same broad answer but express it in another way, with slightly different words or even pronunciation. It’s helpful to hear different ways students offer the same answer.

A Reality Check: Most importantly, very very often the next person doesn’t know the answer. They didn’t hear or understand and might say they don’t know give an answer that’s not quite right. This is helpful to know. Not everyone immediately made sense of it. Perhaps the third and fourth person don’t know either. This is a cue to re-teach or ask the first student to expand their answer for their benefit. Sometimes it reveals a lack of confidence in saying the words out loud, sometimes partial understanding, sometimes a total lack of knowledge – the answer they heard made absolutely no impact on them! Unless you seek this out, you won’t know.

Opportunities to reinforce listening: If James gives a good first answer, your follow up to Safia might be ‘So, Safia, did you get the same answer as James? ‘ or ‘Did you agree with James?’. You do this where Safia and James are at opposite ends of the room – it fosters a culture of listening because students anticipate that they might be asked this type of question and it makes students project their answers more strongly; we all have to listen to each other and communicate to each other. If you only ever take one answer, this type of culture is harder to create.

Prompts to probe further. If the second student simply offers the same response or parrots it somehow or simply says ‘I got the same’… you have the opportunity to follow up with ‘ that’s great; so explain how you got that answer? or something that probes deeper. Good ‘Mogadishu’ is correct – so, can you show me where it is on the map? Or whatever… A subject specific probe takes many forms and this is the cue for it.

Compare the opportunity for some of those positives to become routine parts of class discourse compared to the alternative when the habit is just to ask one student and move on. I always think it pays to take stock at that moment when one student has answered correctly and think… right.. let’s scan… how is everyone else doing? Let me explore to find out. Make it a habit and get into those corners.