Sunday, September 30, 2012
Calling on a Variety of Students
I try to be very thoughtful and purposeful when I call on students for discussion or participation. I always try to call on an equal number of boys and girls when possible. I also try and call on as many people as possible. If I notice the same students are raising their hands all of the time, I will call on students I have not heard from before I give those students a second opportunity to answer a question. If I notice a student who usually does not raise their hand often has raised their hand, I will call on them right away. My cooperating teacher also has a set of sticks in her room with student names on them. We use those sometimes to ensure a variety of student participation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The most important aspect of calling on a variety of students is being aware of how easy it is to keep calling on the same students all the time. Your awareness, and attempts to spread around class participation using different strategies, is good evidence that lots of kids get talk time in class.
ReplyDeleteHere'a question:
How do you feel about kids keeping their hands raised while a classmate is responding to a question you've asked, or giving an opinion, etc.-maybe their hands are up so they're ready to add to the conversation, or correct something their classmate said. For whatever reason, when one kid is talking and others have their hands raised, do you notice? If so, what are you thinking?