It was during a recent post conference with a co-worker that student questioning strategies came up. What I have been working on this year is really engaging all students. Here is how I have been trying it....
- Ask a question
- Call on a student
- Call on another student to clarify previous students answer
- Ask another student to repeat
- Ask another student to put in own words
You get the idea. This goes and goes and goes till I believe all students have an understanding and/or participation of all/most students. It was suggested that I should use Popsicle sticks to make sure I get to all students. Ok, I can deal with that but I almost fell off my chair when I heard the second statement. To make sure that I reach all students, once I call on a student, I should NOT replace the stick in the cup! NOOOOOOOO! I screamed in my head.
What's my beef with Popsicle Sticks for Student Engagement?
The first thing I thought of was what if I were a kid in my classroom. I would pay really close attention till my name got called and then I would check out because my job was done!
So today on my way home from work, I called Annie because I felt that this subject matter was an "Annie" topic. Her first reaction was , "Oh NO!" After she talked me off the Popsicle Stick ledge, she shared me her tricks for the sticks! Thanks so much!
So here is the alternative to Popsicle sticks! Random Name/Number generator. This essentially does the same thing as the sticks BUT if completely random. I haven't done much digging into this yet but I found this one that is user friendly and fast! I think an app for this would be great that I could just have on my phone/iPad. One more awesome thing about this random name picker is that it is based on Math and when a student says "You're picking on me" because they have been picked numerous times, I can point out that I had nothing to do with it!
What strategies do you have for calling on students and making sure that all have a chance to speak?
Katie
***Update***
I was in my PLT meeting today after school and this exact topic came up! The pros/cons of popsicle sticks, random number generator and random name generator. The general consensus is that they are acceptable AS LONG AS the sticks are put back!
I was in my PLT meeting today after school and this exact topic came up! The pros/cons of popsicle sticks, random number generator and random name generator. The general consensus is that they are acceptable AS LONG AS the sticks are put back!
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