questioning strategies

I know that one of my weaknesses as a teacher is that I tend to teach to the more able students in the class. Of course this is one of the greatest challenges that teachers face and no teacher is at all perfect at dealing with this problem. Yet especially during the first week of summer school I think I was guilty of progressing through a lesson while cultivating the understanding of only five or six of my students. Then one day I tried cold-calling by drawing random index cards with the kids’ names on it and ever since then I have made a conscious effort to call on a broader range of students.

Using cold-calling certainly makes it harder for certain students to fade into the background and not participate. I like to think that students will pay a little more attention if they know that they could be randomly called on. It also helps you gauge where the class is as a whole in their understanding of the material. Because I am now calling on more students who are struggling with the concepts, it gives me the chance to give them assistance and lead them to the answer. By doing this other students who are struggling with the same concept may get their questions answered.

Of course there are downsides to using cold-calling. Sometimes you will get a student who is utterly clueless and then you face the choice between taking time to address their confusion or to move on with the class. And other students, because of their embarrassment or nervousness about being called on or not knowing the answer, will attempt to derail the lesson by making a joke out of their response. As with most aspects of teaching, the solution is that one has to simply strike a balance.