How to increase 'wait time'
- indicating the thinking time and asking for no hands up until the time is up
- asking for talking partner* discussions for a given period of time before taking responses
- asking students to jot their thoughts on paper for a given period of time before taking responses
what are the benefits of extending wait time?
- answers are longer
- failure to respond decreases
- responses are more confident
- more alternative explanations are offered
- students challenge and/or improve the answers of other students
Of course, even better than longer wait time is a policy of "no hands up."
* what's a talking partner?
Even if the question is a basic recall question, a more effective approach than rapid fire is to ask the question, then ask students to talk to the person next to them (their talking partner) for, say 30 seconds, to determine the answer. Then answers are then gathered, with no hands up, from a number of pairs (with one student acting as spokesperson^ each time) until a full definition is compiled. When asking open questions ("What might be the reasons for this?"), it is often useful to ask students to raise their hands if their partner had a good idea that they could tell the class. This technique also has the benefit of students feeling authentically proud of what they've done in class. Having 'talking partners' as a regular feature of lessons allows students to think, to articulate, and therefore to extend their learning.
^who should be the spokesperson? Kevin Feldman would say that the teacher should choose the weaker student when it's an important academic task. Too often, the weaker student sits on the sideline while the stronger student practices thinking and speaking.
(mostly from Shirley Clark, Formative Assessment in the Secondary Classroom)
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