Make ‘Cold Calling’ your red hot questioning strategy
One of the main dangers of a traditional hands up approach to your classroom questioning is that it can perpetuate a culture of learned helplessness. When students know that they will only be called on to answer a question if they raise their hand, they may begin to rely on this as a crutch and stop actively participating in class. They may also become discouraged if they are not called on frequently, and may start to disengage from the material. As teachers, we therefore need to find ways to make everyone think as regularly as possible, with no easy way of just opting out. Enter the Cold Call strategy…
Cold Calling is a classroom questioning strategy that involves randomly selecting students to answer questions, rather than waiting for volunteers or calling on those who have their hands raised. By either randomly or strategically selecting students to answer questions, teachers can make sure that every student is having to think deeply and take a regular and active part in class. When students are strategically or randomly selected to answer questions by their teacher, they are almost forced to be ready to respond at all times. This helps to increase their level of engagement in the classroom because they know that they could be asked to answer a question at any given moment - meaning they have to keep up with what is being said and stay up to speed with the lesson.
Although teachers will tell you that giving students no way to opt out of thinking is the main reason they use the Cold Call method, it’s not the only benefit that you’ll find by using this strategy. Cold Calling also helps to create a more equitable learning environment, where all students have an equal opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas. Teachers often find that it also helps to build a sense of community in the classroom. When students know that they will be called on at any time, they are more likely to work together and help each other and this can foster a sense of collaboration and support among students, which can lead to a more positive classroom environment.
So how do you get started with Cold Calling? Here is a simple 4 step process to follow:
Establish a ‘hands down’ approach to questioning in your classroom. The key here is that YOU are going to choose who answers the questions, you’re not going to let students decide if they want to raise their hands to participate. This might take time to embed in your classroom, especially if your students are not used to it and they have been habitually used to being able to raise their hands to answer one of your questions.
Once you have asked a question, let it simmer in the air for a few seconds. This is what is referred to as ‘wait time’ or ‘thinking time’. Students need a few seconds to think about the answer and it also signifies to everyone that they all have to be thinking about the answer right now. This is their cue to think.
You now need to select a student to answer the question. There are two good ways to do this. Firstly, you can use a random name generator. These tools can be found online and do exactly what it says on the tin - it picks a student name at random. Students often quite like this method because it adds a bit of excitement to the process. However, it is completely random. The second method is for you to strategically and intentionally select a specific student. This is obviously far from random and means that you can select a student for a number of different reasons eg. they are a high ability student, they are a disadvantaged student, or they may have been off task and you are using the question to subconsciously tell them that you know they weren’t listening.
Be ready with a response if a student says ‘I don’t know’. When a student says they allegedly don’t know, this could mean any one of the following things: I don’t actually know, I don’t have the confidence to say my answer in front of the class, or I don’t want to think. As the teacher (and with your deep understanding of each individual student) you need to be able to process this response very quickly and choose what to do next. Do you provide them with some help or a clue? Do you move to another student and tell the first student you will be coming back to them? Or do you tell the student that you’re moving to someone else but you’ll be coming to them for the next question? Either way, you can not just accept an ‘I don’t know’ answer and let a student opt out of the whole process.
So it’s time to take back control of who answers the questions in your classroom. By taking time to practice and commit to the Cold Calling strategy you can begin to make questioning one of your teaching super powers, ensuring that everyone has to think every time you pose a question.
