Cold Call It Doesn’t matter if you raise your hand or not, I’m still going to call on you.

Cold Call This is the technique the author feels makes the most difference in rigor, ratio, and level of expectations of all his techniques.

4 Purposes of Cold Call Checking for Understanding Creating a culture of engaged accountability Pacing Backstopping your Ratio

Checking for Understanding Knowing you have taught something is a lot easier that knowing your students understand it or attained mastery of it. You have to call on all students in order to gain that understanding, even (especially) those who don’t volunteer to answer.

Creating a Culture of Engaged Accountability When students see you calling on those who do not raise their hands, they will come to understand that raising their hands is an opportunity to signal that they have something worthwhile to say, but NOT a tool they can use to control whether or not they participate in class. They come to expect and prepare for the eventuality of being called upon.

Pacing It is a waste of your valuable time to spend it pleading for someone other than the same two students to answer your questions. It is a lot simpler to just say, “OK, let’s look at the next problem. How did you answer that one, Joe?”

Backstopping your ratio Cold Call is great for increasing student participation on its own. It is also great for backstopping other techniques. Example, you ask a question about a book you are reading in class, you give 30 seconds of Wait Time to allow students time to think deeply. If they know a Cold Call is coming, they are more likely to be ready to participate. And of course, they should not be allowed to Opt Out This makes most activities less discretionary and more accountable. If they know that after Writing in Reflection for two minutes, they might possibly be called upon to answer, you might get their best work.

4 Keys to Effective Cold Call Keep Cold Call Predictable Make Cold Call Systemic Keep Cold Call positive Unbundle Your Cold Call

Keep Cold Call Predictable You don’t want to ambush students or catch them off guard. If it is a routine, the students are expecting it. The fact that it might be coming causes anticipation, and the more plausible it is that students might be cold called, the more they will anticipate and the more engaged they will be.

Make Cold Call Systemic Make it clear that Cold Calls are universal. They are not an effort to single out students for lack of attentiveness, in response to specific behaviors, or according to some other hidden rule. It is all about expectations. Ask in a calm, even tone, with a bit of a smile or a look of genuine interest. A Cold Call is not a punishment. It is a chance to shine. Champion teachers track their Cold Calls, sometimes even planning them in advance. Cold Call all types of students in all corners of the room.

Keep Cold Call Positive Cold Call is positive in that it gives kids who think they don’t know the answer or are not completely sure a chance to surprise themselves with success. In your heart, you must be rooting for student success. Otherwise, it is a “gotcha” Never attempt to use it just to catch a student unaware. It is an academic technique, not a behavior consequence. Always keep your tone upbeat. If you are worried a student might be anxious start by asking a pre-question: “Did you try problem 2, David?” Then move on. “Good. Tell us what you got”. Teach the class what to do in advance if they don’t know the answer or if a classmate is struggling with an answer. Make sure your questions are clear. That is why it is worth your time to preplan your questions.

Unbundle your Cold Call This is just referring to breaking up your question into a series of smaller questions. Give them out at a more rapid pace to multiple students this creates energy and peer accountability. If you ask a question that takes a long time to answer, students disengage. That is why unbundling is important. See example on page 254. This keeps all students on their toes. And they have to be paying attention to the previous questions and answers, since their answer is contingent on those. You can also unbundle by using scaffolding. Start easy, and get progressively more rigorous.

Cold Call Variations Hands Up/Hands Down Follow On/Follow Up Timing the Name

Hands Up/Hands Down You can still allow kids to raise their hands and call on raised hands mixed in with Cold Calling. That is Hands Up Or, you might say, “No hands right now, I am Cold Calling”. That is Hands Down The chart on page 256 gives the advantages and limitations of both.

Follow On/Follow up You can decide on a few consistent, simple prompts to help students develop a classmate’s idea. Example given in the book is, “Develop that, Christina.” This causes students to listen to one another and engage intellectually with others’ ideas. Follow Up involves revisiting previous comments late in the discussion. Example, “Earlier Alyssia, you to ld us you thought….”. This underscores value and shows you remember their comments and contributions as well as establishing accountability for and ownership of ideas.

Timing the Name Vary when you say the name of the student. The most common and most effective, is to say the question, pause briefly and then say the student’s name. This ensures every student hears the question and begins preparing to answer. Occasionally, it is helpful to say the student’s name first in order to prepare them to attend. This is most helpful with students who have language processing problems or for those who English is not their first language. It increases the likelihood of success. You can even “pre-call” a student before class that you will ask a question about number 4 or to be prepared to share an idea.

Managing the Pause This is Slow Call Giving extra wait time so all students can get it. Though initially, Cold Call was developed as a way to speed things up, it is just as effective in slowing things down and giving everyone time to think. Example: Ask a questions, then say, “It’s a hard question, so I am going to give you 30 seconds of think time and then I am going to Cold Call a couple of you to share your thinking”. You can pause to think or pause to write. (Get Better Faster Connection!)

And Finally…. Only with Cold Call can a teacher know the state of mastery in her classroom. Champion teachers plan Cold Calls and Script their exact questions. (Pp260-261) Consider this, you can also Cold Call on students who you know will have interesting answers to facilitate discussion. Then your lesson becomes more than a question/answer session.