Two Techniques to Engage Students

Cold Call & Call and Response

1. Cold Call

a. Calls on students regardless of whether they have raised their hands in order to make engaged participation the expectation.

b. Allows teachers to check for understanding effectively and systematically.

c. Increases speed in both terms of your pacing and the rate at which you can cover material.

d. Allows one to distribute work more broadly around the room.

e. Key Principles

i. It’s predictable. Preferred preventive medicine. Engagement strategy, not a discipline strategy. Do it for a few minutes every day. Beginning of class is the ideal time.

ii. It’s systematic. About teacher expectations, not individuals. Universal (come without fail to everyone), and impersonal (their tone, manner, and frequency emphasize that they are not an effort to single out any student or students.) No emotion involved. It’s how business is done. Questions come quickly, clearly, and calmly, in clusters directed to multiple students, in multiple locations around the room. Gives students a chance to shine. Some keep visible charts, tracking who’s been called on.

iii. It’s positive. Purpose is to foster positive engagement in the rigorous work of your class. The goal is for the student to get the answer right, not learn a lesson by getting it wrong. Keeps students on task and mentally engaged. The question and what an answer could look like should be clear. So, plan your exact questions in advance.

iv. It’s scaffolded. Start with simple questions and progress to harder ones.

f. Use Cold Call to follow up on previous comments. This shows how much you value students’ participation and insight. It also emphasizes that your students’ engagement in what their peers say is as important as their engagement in what you say.

i. Follow-on to a previous question.

 Ask a simple question and then ask a short series of further questions.

[CELL adapted from Teach Like A Champion, Lemov, D., 2010, Jossey Base] Page 1 ii. Follow-on to another student’s comment.

 Reinforces importance of listening to peers as well as teacher.

iii. Follow-on to a student’s own earlier comment.

 Signals that once the student has spoken, she’s not done.

2. Call and Response

a. Ask a question and whole class calls out in unison.

b. Builds habit of compliance.

c. Effectively used accomplishes three primary goals

i. Academic review and reinforcement.

 Responding as a group in unison ensures everyone gets to give the answer.

 When an individual student gives a strong answer, asking the rest of the class to repeat that answer is also an effective way to reinforce it.

ii. High-energy fun.

 Energetic, active, and spirited.

 Feels lively.

 Makes students want to be there.

iii. Behavioral reinforcement.

 Makes crisp, active, timely compliance a habit, committing it to muscle memeory.

 Reinforces teacher’s authority and command.

 Makes on-cue compliance public.

d. Five types or levels:

[CELL adapted from Teach Like A Champion, Lemov, D., 2010, Jossey Base] Page 2 i. Repeat: students repeat what the teacher has said or completes a familiar phrase that s/he starts.

ii. Report: students who have completed tasks on their own are asked to report their answers back.

iii. Reinforce: new information or a strong answer is reinforced by asking the class to repeat it.

iv. Review: answers or information from earlier in the class or unit is reviewed.

v. Solve: Most challenging to do well and most rigorous. The teacher asks students to solve a problem and call out the answer in unison. The challenge is having a single clear answer that all students will likely be able to solve

e. In-cue. Teachers must use a reliable and consistent signal and make 100 percent participation the rule. There are five specific kinds of in-cues:

i. Count-based.

 Ex: “Ready, set…,” “One, two…,” or “One, two, ready, you…”

 Advantage – giving students time to get ready to answer.

 Ensures students answer in unison and exactly on cue.

 Can be cut short if students are not fully attentive.

 Can be sped up or slowed down to set the intended pace.

ii. Group prompt.

 Ex: “Everybody!” and “Class!”

 Helps foster group identity.

iii. Nonverbal gesture.

 A point, a hand dropped from shoulder height, a looping motion with the finger.

 Advantage is speed.

 Don’t require interruption in the flow of the lesson.

iv. Employing a shift in tone and volume.

 Trickiest method, most prone to error. [CELL adapted from Teach Like A Champion, Lemov, D., 2010, Jossey Base] Page 3  Teacher increases volume in the last few words of a sentence and inflects his tone to imply a question; students recognize this as a prompt and respond crisply.

 Used only after mastering simpler methods over time.

 Advantage of being seamless, fast, and natural.

v. Specialized.

 Indicates a specific response to students.

 Ex: Students have been taught to always respond to the question, “Why are we here?”, with the response in unison, “To learn! To achieve!”

f. Adaptations and applications:

i. Combine and intersperse it with Cold Call.

 Increases attention

 Taps into tension of unexpected.

 Makes class more exciting.

ii. Jazz up Call and Response

 Ask subgroups within the class to respond in unison to some cues.

 Ex: ask boys, then girls; ask left side of room, then right side

iii. Add a physical gesture

 Students cross their fingers in a mock addition sign as they call out the name for the answer to an addition problem: “The product!”

 Gives students a way to be physically active.

 Keeps students alert and moving and gives them something positive to do, not just say.

 Teacher better able to watch for students who are hiding while others participate.

3. Pepper

a. Fast-paced, unpredictable with lots of chances for participation in rapid succession.

[CELL adapted from Teach Like A Champion, Lemov, D., 2010, Jossey Base] Page 4 b. Great warm-up activity

c. Often starts as Cold Call and then transitions into taking volunteers as enthusiasm rises

d. Asks quick fundamental questions as review

e. It’s a game.

f. Time is compressed, clear beginning and end

g. Variations:

i. Pick Sticks –popsicle sticks labeled with students’ names – random pick

ii. Head-to-Head – two students called on to stand up to answer, first to answer correctly remains standing to compete against new challenger

iii. Sit Down – all stand, earn seat by answering correctly or vice versa

4. Wait Time

a. Delaying a few strategic seconds after asking a question before calling on a student

b. Taps into power of ideas and students who don’t volunteer first to answer

c. 3-5 seconds improves the quality of answers

d. Enhance wait time by narrating it

i. More intentional & productive

ii. Explain why waiting

 Ex: I’m waiting for more hands.

 Ex: I see people thinking deeply and jotting down thoughts. I’ll give everyone a few more seconds to do that.

 Ex: I see people looking at notes, that’s a good idea.

5. Everybody Writes

a. Give time to reflect first in writing before discussing.

b. Benefits

a. Increase quality of ideas

i. Expand number of students likely to participate

[CELL adapted from Teach Like A Champion, Lemov, D., 2010, Jossey Base] Page 5 ii. Increases the ratio of everybody being engaged regardless of who actually speaks

Reflection and Practice Activities for Cold Call & Call and Response

1. Take a lesson plan you have written, and mark it up by identifying three places where it would be beneficial to use Cold Call. Script your questions, and write them into your lesson plan.

2. Take the same lesson plan, and mark it up to add two short sessions of Call and Response. Again, script your questions. Try to ask questions at all five levels, and note the in-cue you’ll use.

[CELL adapted from Teach Like A Champion, Lemov, D., 2010, Jossey Base] Page 6