How do I know all students are paying attention? – David Didau

This publication is also replacing. As a reminder, I am planning to stop publishing here in the short and medium term, so I would be really grateful if I could subscribe there.

Thanks David

In attention, meaning and domain, I wrote that all teachers need to answer four questions in each lesson:

1. How do everyone know that all students are paying attention?
2. How do I know that all students have made sense or what makes Bon Buckht?
3. How do I know that all students are dominating the skills I want them to learn?
4. How can I do all this in a way that is inclusive and that results in all students experienced success?

This publication will go into more details about the first question.

It has made me more and more obvious that the teachers do not know if their students are paying attention. Seeing a lesson, I will regularly ask the student that I am sitting next to what the teacher has just said and will apologize and say they do not know. The classroom occupied by the teacher can be very different from what his students are. In the teacher’s classroom there, a strong approach is in the content that is because students learn, but possible, a rather mourning consciousness that students may be thinking or doing. This situation can be perfectly summarized with this cartoon of Gary Larson:

As I am more in tune with this problem, I have developed the habit of asking students to repeat what I just said. It is so common that the students admit that they were not listening that now it seems almost surprising when can Tell me what I just said!

And if you suspect that students are not listening YouThe probability that they listen to each other becomes even more remote. Now routinely I ask students to repeat what their classmates have just said and it is really clear that when a student speaks, everyone else tends to act if they have tacit permission to disconnect during the duration.

Our default expectation must be that even the most conscientious students will lose the approach repeatedly through a lesson and will have a series of prepared movements that we can display in anticipation and mitigation against this possible.

With that in mind, here is a list of such movements:

Closed questions

Teachers are sometimes told that they should avoid closed questions and just ask open questions. Both have their place, but when they check that students are listening to, assuming a closed question is much more efficient. For example:

Professor: A subordinate clause is part of a sentence that adds additional information but makes no sense on its own. What is a subordinate clause? [pause] Samina?

Samina: There … Is it part of a prayer?

Teacher: It is, yes. It is part of a sentence that adds additional information but makes no sense on its own. What is a subordinate clause? Kyle?

Etc. I will also vary the questions form and I will, What do we call the part of a sentence that adds additional information but does not make sense on its own?

N.B. Closed questions are not excellent to tell us if a student understanding Something, but that is why we are using it here.

Rehearsal

The routine of closed questions is very similar to the art of the essay. If we want to build a culture in the classroom where students understand that they can be asked to repeat what you have only said leg at any time, we will make sure more students are more attention, more time. In this case, a typical interaction can be seen something like this:

Teacher: Who says: “So bad and fair that I have not seen”? Shannon?

Shannon: Um, I don’t know, I’m sorry.

Teacher: Ok, don’t worry. I’m going to ask another student the same question and then ask him to tell me what his answer was, so listen very carefully. Who says: “So disgusting and fair that I have not turned”? Daisy?

Daisy: Was Macbeth?

Teacher: Yes, it was Macbeth, well done. Shannon, who says: “So disgusting and fair that I have not seen”?

Shannon: Macbeth

Teacher: Excellent. What has Shannon just said? Alfie?

And repeat. Obviously, time is limited and can do it indefinitely, but I find that it makes a big difference for future lessons if teachers spend time building a culture where attention is required and valued.

As you can see, asking students to repeat is an excellent way to deal with them saying “I don’t know.” Sometimes they really do not know (but, as you will see below, this is because they have not been paying attention), sometimes they are disagree with anxiety and their mind has been blank, it simply cannot correspond. You could Think You know which of these is true for any student, but not really. Teachers need an response that is occupied with all the thesis possibilities in a way that is not confrontational, but clearly points out that participation is required. Asking students to repeat the response of a classmate is the least invasive and supporting way to ensure that attention is restarted.

Fría called

As you have not notified, both approaches are based on the teacher selecting who will respond. There is a couple or possible inconveniences for cold call students that we must take into account. One is the sampling problem. Also or see that teachers conclude that all students are paying attention after asking questions to only one or two students. Our general rule should request a sample wide enough for this conclusion to be justified, but that takes a valuable lesson time. Secondly, cold calls can prevent students who want to participate show what they know and this can make them feel unmotivated.

My personal rule for cold calls is that the questions I ask are Never real real. When reviewing attention, I just ask the students something that I have already covered in a lesson. The only reason why the question could folding The cold for a student is that they have left. I think it is crucial not to irritate this. Maintaining attention is difficult. All students are struggling against entropy and I need to make the act of re -enforcement that will become normally and minimally intralive. That said, sometimes we ask a student a question because Just know They have lost the approach. From time to time I am wrong in this: some students can comfortably look through the window, scribble on their board and continue following what is happening in the room, but most cannot.

Slate mini

The Mini Slate (MWB) are one of the best tools in the arsenal of a teacher. They definitely come with some discounts (they require maintenance and a regular supply of new feathers) but, in addition to investing in technological alternatives, they provide the best way for teachers to know if all Students are paying attention. They also approach the two disadvantages to the cold calls previously discussed.

This is how MWB use to see attention:

1. I have my question based on something that already taught the duration of the lessons. EC Complete the following appointment: “Then f _ _ _ and f _ _ a d_ _ ih _ _ _ _ _ _ _”.
2. Students have an appropriate amount of time to write their response in their MWB
3. Step through routine 1.2, 3 show me* I narrated like this:

OK. 1. 1 It means downpasses … great, I can see that most pens are low. Marvelous. 2. 2 It means holding your table with both hands face down, floating on your desk, like this. [demonstrate] Face down. Both hand please … excellent. 3. 3 It means holding your table in front of you in both hands with the answer you face. Like this … Only you should be able to see your answer … Some tables must turn. Perfect. Now, show me …

I keep telling this until everyone can do everything without reminders. This allows me to see if All In the room he has completed the task for my satisfaction and everyone in the room has had the opportunity to demonstrate what they know.

* I usually see this done as a routine of ‘3,2,1 show’ that it is a lost opportunity because you lose the rhyme.

Circulating the room

While students write in their MWB, I will circulate the room, checking what they are writing. If a student is the writing that I can intervene, but, if I have asked them to do something we have already covered, this should not be a big problem. The main reason to circulate when I am reviewing the attention is to ensure that everyone is a) Do what is expected yb) is aware that I am reviewing. Also of the teachers stop at the front of the room duration of seconds and, although they can reasonably guess what is happening, it will be less effective than if they occupy a position in which the students can see the MWB of the students.

Disordated Markbooks

I have become a complete conversion to carry a clipboard with a copy of the class sea seat plan in each lesson that I teach. Without this, I know that I will forget to do things, lose opportunities and allow errors and the wrong idea not to control.

Visualizers (I do)

Department of what is taught, visualizers can be an invaluable way to focus students. That said, I see many lessons in which the teacher is busy in his desk and does not realize that the students have lost their focus. Perhaps the most effective way of this is to be able to use its visualizer while standing.

This configuration belongs to James Hyde in Four Divenings Academy and it is a pleasure to use. The lectern reaches approximately 50 and James set a magnet to the base of its very good visualizer to guarantee a constant and reliable platform in Wat to write.

This is a great beginning, but it is still insufficient. We also need to regularly exchange our use of visualizer with the techniques discussed above. One of my favorite ways to use the visualizer is that teachers have their own copy of the class book in which they complete all the work expected that students do. It makes it very easy for students to see where and how to underline, write the title, present a page or whatever you want them to learn is important to present their work. It also means that anyone who has been absent can use the teacher’s book to catch up with things that have been lost.

I hope two things of all this are clear:

1. These techniques are not so much a menu from which he selects his favorites, but they are an interdependent and mutual interdependent approach to improve to answer the question How do I know that all students are paying attention??
2. All these techniques could (and should) be implemented differently to answer the other questions that teachers must ask and answer their lessons.

As always, if you are interested in modeling this in your school with your students, contact.

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