In my first year of teaching for my first observation, my math supervisor came in to critique a lesson. I had students come up to the board to solve problems individually. One student at the board at a time.
One question, one answer.
During the post conference, he went on to heavily critique this practice. He explained to me that instead of having other students sit idly by while one student answered the question, everyone should be practicing the question in a notebook or on a personal whiteboard. This would allow all students to be participating at the same time.
Over the past several years as an administrator, I can’t count the number of classrooms where I see this practice still happening.
One question. One student called upon. One answer. Repeat.
Too many students sitting by disengaged.
I was lucky to have this pointed out to me so early on in my teaching career, because I was able to change the practice, and make sure that I was including every single student in every single lesson.
I’ve even seen veteran teachers still calling on one student to answer a question.
It’s time that we all change this practice.
Instead of:
One question, one answer.
Let’s change it to:
One question. Many answers. Follow-Up Question. Student question. Student answer. Rebuttal. Agreement. Disagreement. More questions. Discussion. Conversation.
Thinking.
Rich (@RACzyz)