Hands Down

Lolly sticks will level your class.

This means levelling class participation, narrowing the gap between the good and poor students in the class and getting a better feel for what is being understood.

Background

In most classes a teacher will ask a question and a few students will put up their hands to answer. This isn't very useful for a number of reasons.

• Good students put up their hands because they know the answer; they're essentially showing off since they aren't learning anything here, they're just demonstrating to you and the rest of the class how clever they are.

• Students who lack self-confidence won't put up their hands even if they know the answer in case they get it wrong. If they discover they did know the answer they'll feel disapointed in themselves for not answering. If they discover they didn't know the answer they'll feel vindicated and next time round be even more reluctant to put up their hand.

• Students who aren't sure won't put up their hands in case they're wrong and students who don't know the answer won't put up their hand. They may, or may not, take on board the correct answer given by the smart student.

In this way the gap between the more and less able students grow. The good students are engaged in the class, waiting for an opportunity to show off; the poor students will often disengage from the class simply wait for the end of the lesson.

And in these cases the teacher will normally ask a raise hand, get a good answer, and move on, leaving many of the students behind.

Answer

So the answer then is to keep hands down in the class.

Instead of hands, get a load of blank lolly sticks and on each one write the name of a student. Put them in a tin on your desk and every time you ask a question, pick one at random and ask that student.

This has two main effects.

1. All the students need to be aware of the lesson; they will soon understand that their name could be called at any second so they need to pay attention in case it's them.
2. You'll hear more wrong answers. This is good because it will tell you as teacher what your students do not understand. If a student answers wrongly tell them it's a good try, but no, and move on. In a short time your students will understand that it's ok to give a wrong answer and those students lacking in self-condidence before will feel less worried about it.

Variations on a Theme

• If there's resistance to this technique from the students, get them more involved by having a student pick out a stick and read the name.

• If there are particularly weak students in your class you can pick out sticks 2 or 3 at a time and read the names out so that those students know they'll be asked shortly and will need to pay special attention to what you're saying.

Issues

Sometimes the better students who were used to putting up their hands at every question will feel like they're being ignored. Essentially they don't have an opportunity now to show off.

This is simply addressed by the Mini Whiteboards technique.