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Beyond Q+A: Six Strategies That Motivate ALL Students to Participate
February 25, 2013 | Maddie Witter
Do you have students who rarely raise their hand when you ask a question? When I think back about kids in my classroom who didn't participate at first, I remember Jared and Maya (whose names I changed). Jared was polite, listened to his classmates, and did his homework. But when I asked questions or set up class discussions, Jared remained silent. Maya was really creative and an avid reader. She also didn't participate, frequently had her head down in class, and was reluctant to start work. Some of our students might sit quietly through each lesson or be visibly disengaged. Maybe they don't understand the lesson, are embarrassed, or hesitantly wait for another peer to share. Jared and Maya certainly aren't unique.
I often visit classrooms where I see teachers employ lots of Q+A. Asking questions and calling on raised hands is one way to check for understanding. But Q+A doesn't access 100% of our kids -- especially not kids like Jared or Maya.
How can we get our shiest students, or even our student with her head down in the back of our class, participating? While cold calling, randomizers or pulling a Popsicle stick will ensure students are equally called upon, some students find that approach frightening or annoying. Below are strategies you can try in your class tomorrow that will motivate your Jareds and Mayas to participate.
1. Three Seconds
According to researcher Mary Budd Rowe, the average teacher waits 1.5 seconds between asking a question and calling on a student. By increasing the wait time to a mere three seconds, the following occurs:
- Accuracy increases
- "I don’t know" decreases
- Student responses get longer
- Achievement on tests increases
- More students participate
I literally count at least three Mississippis in my head after asking each question.
2. Hand Out Questions in Advance
Pre-plan a few questions that you want to ask (Saphier and Haley, 1993), write them on slips, and hand each student one question at the beginning of class. Once it’s time to ask the question, reach out first to the kids who had the question, then to the rest of the class. Try dividing the class into the groups whose members had the same question so that they have a chance to chat first before sharing out.
3. Anonymous Questioning
Companies like Socrative and Infuse Learning have designed software to check for understanding that can be accessed via smartphone, tablet or laptop. You can incorporate all types of questions from multiple-choice to short answers, and responses can be anonymously represented via graph. You can then make informed decisions with rapid, real-time data. Kids love it because they get to use technology, feel safe and get immediate feedback.
4. Choice Questions
It's important to incorporate questions that have more than one right answer, but broad, open-ended questions can be debilitating. Try incorporating some choices or either/or questions.
- Instead of asking, "How are you going to solve today's equation?", try "Would you rather use the simplify or guess-and-check method for today's equation?"
- Instead of asking, "Which character exemplifies what it means to be a friend?", try "Would Charlotte or Wilbur make a better friend? Why?"
5. Snowball to Avalanche
In Reading Without Limits, I share a fun kinaesthetic strategy:
Have a really debatable question? Start the discussion. When a student answers, they become a "snowflake." As students agree with the original student, they move their bodies closer to that student to "build on that snowflake,"’ making a snowball. If you choose a great question, there should be several snowballs throughout the room that eventually, if one side is more convincing, turn into an avalanche. Kids will love showing allegiance to their classmates' ideas. And they can definitely change their minds.
As kids show their allegiance, call on different kids to share out why they are taking that particular stand.
6. Estimation Line-Ups
Ask kids a question that has a numerical response based on a sliding scale (Kagan, 1994). Place a number line around your classroom walls. Students stand under their number/answer preparing to share why. Fold the line in half so the students who most strongly disagreed with each other now chat before sharing out to the whole class.
- "Our scientific hypothesis is that a plant will grow more near the window than in the closet. How many more inches do you think the plant near the window will grow compared to the one in the closet?"
- "On a scale of 1-5, 5 being 'strongly agree,' 1 being 'strongly disagree,' should Jack and the boys take Piggy's glasses?"
Traditional Q+A didn't help me access all of my learners. The above strategies increased participation in my classroom, giving me more opportunity to check and support understanding. Getting our Mayas and Jareds to develop the confidence and comfort to participate makes a classroom a true learning community that values all, not just some students' thoughts.
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Comments (13)
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Wow! What great suggestions!
Wow! What great suggestions! When I read the avg teacher waits 1.5 seconds, I mentally went through in my mind how many seconds I wait and 1.5 seconds was pretty close! I can't wait to get back in my classroom to try 3 seconds and determine if there is a big difference in responses!
I found these tips to be
I found these tips to be helpful. I really like to use pair share in my room. I also have conditioned myself to use the wait time. For my special education students, I really like frontloading and giving them the questions ahead of time. Thanks for the great refresher!
Thanks for this post; as a
Thanks for this post; as a relatively new teacher, this is really helpful. I've used some of these strategies, like the three second wait. I also find it helpful to repeat the question slowly, giving them another chance to absorb it if they missed it the first time around. Other times I'll ask the question, call on a student, and then repeat the question after I've called on them. It gives them some time to calm down after being called on, and to articulate a better answer. I like the idea of using prepared questions; I haven't used it before, but I can see how it would be a valuable learning tool for students, but also a valuable teaching tool. Depending on how far in advance you give the question and what kind of preparation you want, the student who prepares the question can provide instruction for the rest of the class through their response.
Other Ideas
Being a first year teacher I found these ideas very helpful. I would like to add a couple more to the list. I teach a writing class and students love to share their work with each other. In order to do this we use talking sticks. I put them in groups of 6-8 depending on how much time I have. Each student gets two talking sticks (popsicle sticks). They use one stick to read their story and one stick to comment on someone else's writing in the group. The students can only talk when they lay a stick in the center of the circle. No more than one person can comment on the story. This way everyone has a chance to read their story and everyone gets a positive comment from their peers. This has helped my shy students.
Another thing I do is give each student a set of 4 cards. They have one for each A, B, C, and D. I then put questions on my Smartboard and they have to hold up the letter of the correct answer. This makes everyone participate and I am able to see who is struggling in what area.
I found your ideas to engage
I found your ideas to engage students very practical and easy to implement. They are very similar to the practices I use to engage my adult learners. I particular like the advantages you listed when we wait just a few extra seconds for our learners to answer questions. As a learner, it often takes me a few seconds to gather my thoughts and to prepare an answer. I find it frustrating when the teacher jumps in and answers the question before I have a chance to share mine. I also like the idea you mentioned about giving your students choice questions. Adults like to make choices when it comes to their learning. Giving them a choice allows them to have some control over their learning, which makes it more significant to them.
As a special education
As a special education teacher, this article addresses one of my biggest pet peeves in the regular or collaborative classroom. So often my students are more than capable of getting the correct the correct answer, but just take a little more processing time. So often if the students are not prepared to answer immediately, they are skipped over or reprimanded by other teachers for not being prepared. These strategies are a great way to combat this issues, and have my students gain some confidence in the regular classroom. A couple of those were new to me and I will certainly share with my colleagues.
The Fishbowl
Also, one of the techniques I was lucky enough to experience while I was student teaching was the "fishbowl." This discussion format is wonderful for upper elementary and older and is appropriate for extended discussion questions.
You arrange the desks so that there are 4-5 facing each other in a small group in the center of the room with all others in a circle around the outside. Students are chosen to go into the "fishbowl" in the middle, and discuss an open-ended question or topic. Sometimes one of the students is chosen to be discussion facilitator; but often students just use body-language cues about when to speak. Only students in the center are allowed to speak; everyone else in the room is quiet and listening and/or taking notes.
The teacher is not part of the discussion and only speaks when asking the intial question or starting a new thread or when intervening if students say something off-topic or inappropriate. The students are really discussing between themselves. (Frequently the students had to get used to addressing each other at first and not the teacher; but soon they got into deep worthwhile conversations.)
When I experienced this, the students all took turns being in the center over the course of multiple days as they discussed a class novel; and when the teacher determined that the students in the center had exhausted everything they wanted to say, she went around the room to the people seated around the edge to see what, if anything the rest of the students had to add (and the students in the center had to stay silent); but I have also come across descriptions whereby students who want to say something go into the fishbowl and tap the shoulder of someone who has already contributed something meaningful to the conversation.
The following YouTube video is a pretty good example from middle school: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwxnBv-dNBI
Think-Pair-Share
I find the think-pair-share strategy to be helpful with shy kids. I put the question out. They have a moment to think to themselves. They pair up with one or two other students to create an answer to the question. Each pair/group reports out to the class. I use old-fashioned sand timers to keep the kids on task (1 minute or 3 minutes). Sometimes recruiting the shy or unfocused student to be the timer helps.
Great idea!
Just become really knowledgeable about food allergies! I had to switch to non-edible treats at one point because so many kids couldn't eat or be near certain foods. Keep up the good work!
These are great ideas. And I
These are great ideas. And I would like to add one that I used when I was student teaching which I found helpful in a math class.
I passed out "white boards" (heavy white chardboard inside sheet protectors so they were erasable) and erasable markers and told the class that I didn't want any "bench sitters," I wanted them all "in the game"--i.e., everyone needed to come up with an answer. I noticed that this technique helped get the students who often weren't paying close attention to really listen up and helped me to deal with misconceptions quickly.