No Opt Out

Many students have learned that “I don’t know” will get them off the hook. Effective teachers do not permit a child to opt out. No Opt Out is an important strategy to use in the classroom because it promotes an academic environment that demands all students participate while empowering them by ensuring that they will be able to correctly answer any question that they previously could not answer. Students do not get the option not to answer a question.

I often pair this technique with Cold Call during oral drills to review previous material. Since implementing No Opt Out I have noticed increased attention and participation because students know that they will be required to answer correctly. No Opt Out has enhanced the value of scholarship in the classroom and has been received by students as a positive support; rather than them feeling belittled by it.

I have posted two videos that demonstrate using No Opt Out. The first video is very short and serves to show a quick sequence of a student who answered incorrectly at first and, after hearing the correct answer from another student, is asked to repeat the correct answer. The second video is an example of an oral drill using Cold Call and No Opt Out. You will notice that all students participated and ended by saying the correct answer. You will also see that students were not resistant to being asked to answer the question correctly.





I am extremely impressed at how well this technique works and how easy it is to use. I plan to continue using No Opt Out in the future as well as many of the other strategies offered in Teach Like a Champion.

Wait Time

Wait Time

Wait time is a valuable tool that although may appear to be a simple technique, it is little bit more challenging to execute effectively and efficiently.

Prior to reading TLAC, I’ve used the wait time technique – yet it wasn’t as efficient or effective. In reinforcing or previewing concepts for the students, my delays were too long causing us to lose valuable learning time. Other times, be it individually or in co-teaching settings, wait time was usually about one second after asking a question which produce inaccurate, not thoughtful responses. It also increased the “guessing game” - where if an answer is incorrect, some may possibly shout out other answers which turn into a discipline problem.

Yet, delaying a few strategic seconds after you finish asking a question and before you ask a student to begin answering allows opportunities for students to generate richer, more reflective answers. In fact, some research has shown that when students are given just three to five seconds of wait time after a question, several key things are likely to happen:

• The length and correctness of student responses are likely to increase.



• The number of failures to respond (“I don’t know”) is likely to decrease.



• The number of students who volunteer an answer is likely to increase.



• The use of evidence in answers is likely to increase

Upon reading the technique in TLAC and practicing it, I usually count in my head for five seconds prior to asking students for a response. Having this delayed time has given more student voice in the classroom rather than hearing from just the few students who are always eager to respond. More importantly, for some of the students with disabilities whom I work with, wait times allows students with delayed processing and short-term memory challenges to frame their answers resulting in more accurate responses and comfortability to participate in class.

To measure success with this technique, take a small tally of accurate answers when using wait time versus what would happen if I didn’t use wait time effectively. If you notice that even with wait time, students are still not producing the accurate response needed – it may not be just the technique itself. Think, instead, how can I make sure that students receive the necessary amount of time to produce quality responses? An example could be using a sentence starter as a support for students in formulating their responses on a post-it prior to responding. When applying this support and the wait time technique together, I had more students raising their hands as they felt comfortable and confident in their responses.

Format Matters and Pepper

#4 – Format Matters

It’s not just what students say that matters but how they communicate it.  To succeed, students must take their knowledge and express it in the language of opportunity.

FORMAT MATTERS

Though I often use this technique with adult ESL, I didn’t use it much with my Read 180 students. Before reading TLAC I didn’t correct students much  when speaking. The “I be like….”  didn't warrant a pause. Now I don’t let a student error pass. One way to correct is to repeat student mistakes  and wait till they self correct.  Be careful not to over correct as students can become “gun shy”.

Require students to give complete answers, one or two word responses are not acceptable. Projecting your voice “loud and proud” is also important. Language precision is another aspect of this technique. The “thingie” is denominated for what it is. The imprecise use of the format of a unit is clarified (as in units of measurement in a math lesson). In the video I am correcting a student and asking another to speak clearly.

#24 – Pepper 

Use fast-paced, group-oriented activities to review familiar information and foundational skills.  (Different from Cold Call in that hands can be raised or not, questions are limited to review/recall, and should be about speed – keep the pace moving.)

PEPPER

The Pepper technique is one of my favorites. It’s fast-paced and sets an energetic tone at the beginning of the lesson. I’ve adapted it by making it a competition with a pride proclamation going to the winner.

I use it often for vocabulary review but most content works well. In the video I am going over our workshop vocabulary, parts of speech and definitions.

Cold Call

Cold Call can be an effective technique for checking students understanding of basic skills and content knowledge. I personally enjoyed using Cold Call because it allowed me to carefully select students who I wanted to participate in the activity because no one is allowed to raise their hands. I also used Teach Like a Champion's "Right is Right" technique to make sure I was able to reinforce the importance of the material and review correct answers with students who were confused by the information.

Cold Call was a new technique for me. I rarely drill students on specific skills in my 7th Grade English classroom, but with the ELA test looming on the horizon, I decided to try Cold Call as a part of my ELA Boot Camp procedure. The students really liked the intensity of the activity and I truly feel that Cold Call helped me narrow in on skills that individual students needed reinforced. Had I not tried Cold Call, I think some gaps in student knowledge would have been missed because during a typical Do Now, I assumed the majority of the class was following along. :)

In order to measure success, I found I could easily tally up the number of correct answers each class was able to get during the daily Cold Call. As the class adapted to the practice, they began to master the literary devices I was reviewing with them to prepare for the upcoming ELA Exam.

In the following video clip, you will see an example of the daily Cold Call technique. At the time this video was taken, the class had adapted to process and was used to the routine of Cold Call.