#170 How to secure 100% student engagement with Pritesh Raichura
Jun 28, 2023
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Science teacher Pritesh Raichura shares practical insights on ensuring 100% student engagement, including All-Hands-Up Cold Calling, high-frequency checks for listening, desks in rows, S-L-A-N-T, silence as a default, instructional sandwich, turn and talk, and using mini-whiteboards.
Utilizing the All-Hands-Up Cold Call strategy promotes active engagement and participation from all students in the classroom.
Implementing specific routines and cues for attention across all classrooms helps create a positive and engaging learning environment.
Arranging desks in rows facing the teacher, with clear sightlines and using a visualizer stand, optimizes visibility and attention in the classroom.
A three-stage questioning approach involving checking for listening, rehearsal, and checking for understanding ensures a deep comprehension of the material.
The Instructional Sandwich technique, which creates anticipation and suspense, enhances student engagement and maintains attention.
The 'head down, fist on head' technique allows for private and independent student responses, reducing peer influence and promoting focused thinking.
Deep dives
The Power of All Hands Up Cold Calling
All hands up cold calling is a strategy where the teacher asks a question and expects all students to put their hands up. This creates an environment of active participation and engagement in the classroom. It allows the teacher to quickly assess who is paying attention and who needs support. The goal is to have every student involved in the lesson and to create a culture of participation. The teacher narrates the hands, ensuring that all hands are up before selecting a student to answer. All hands up cold calling helps create a more exciting and energetic classroom environment, and it provides valuable data on student participation and understanding.
Benefits of All Hands Up Cold Calling
All hands up cold calling has several benefits. It allows the teacher to see who is not participating or paying attention, enabling them to address any issues or barriers to engagement. It reinforces the importance of active listening and participation for students who may not have been eager to engage initially. It creates a visual and energetic classroom atmosphere, making the lesson more exciting and engaging. Additionally, using all hands up cold calling in combination with other participation strategies like turn and talk ensures that all students have an opportunity to contribute and practice their thinking before answering.
Managing Different Scenarios
In situations where only a minority of students have their hands up, it is important for the teacher to select a student to answer who may not have their hand raised. This ensures that all students participate and have the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding. The teacher can use strategies like turn and talk to encourage student engagement and check for understanding before choosing a student to answer. The goal is to encourage a culture of participation and create an inclusive learning environment.
Desks in Rows with Optimal Radar
Desks are arranged in rows facing the teacher, allowing for optimal visibility and attention. The teacher desk is positioned in a way that provides clear sightlines to all students. The active ingredients include having desks in rows, ensuring the teacher desk is in the right position, and utilizing a visualizer stand for easy access to teaching materials.
Establishing Whole School Routines
The whole school adopts specific routines, such as cueing students for attention, using specific transitions between activities, and practicing high frequency checks for listening. Active ingredients include clear expectations for attention, consistent routines across all classrooms, and regular reinforcement of these routines throughout the school day.
Using Visualizers and Teacher Examples Books
Visualizers are used to project teaching materials for the whole class to see, while the teacher uses a teacher examples book to provide live demonstrations and explanations. Active ingredients include using a visualizer stand to ensure optimal visibility for the teacher, organizing teacher examples books for easy reference and organization, and utilizing the book for live demonstrations and note-taking.
Promoting Strong Classroom Culture
Teachers focus on establishing a strong classroom culture, emphasizing the importance of attention, participation, and following routines. Active ingredients include setting clear expectations for attention and participation, implementing positive reinforcement strategies such as merits, and creating a positive classroom environment that promotes student engagement and self-esteem.
Rehearsing knowledge through questioning
In teaching the periodic table, the teacher uses a three-stage questioning approach. They first check for listening by having students respond to specific vocabulary words. Then, they move into a rehearsal phase where students practice and discuss the information. Finally, a check for understanding is done to ensure that students have grasped the concepts, such as identifying elements in the periodic table based on their group and period.
Setting up classroom routines
The teacher discusses the implementation of whole school routines, including desks in rows, silence as the default, and the use of an instruction sandwich. While it may be challenging to introduce these routines if they are not whole school policies, teachers can try to implement aspects of them in their own classrooms and build strong relationships with their students to gain their cooperation. The importance of maintaining high standards while showing care and support for students is emphasized.
Checking for understanding through participation
The teacher explains their approach to checking for understanding by backloading the means of participation. By first allowing students to raise their hands and share their answers, the teacher gets a sense of the class's understanding before using other means of participation, such as turn and talk or whiteboards. This approach helps gauge student comprehension and adapt teaching strategies accordingly.
Checking for listening is important
One of the key takeaways from this podcast episode is the importance of checking for listening in the classroom. This means ensuring that students are actively engaged and paying attention to what the teacher is saying. By implementing strategies such as a check for listening, where students are asked to repeat or summarize what was just said, teachers can ensure that their instructions and explanations are being understood and retained by the students. This helps to create a more effective and engaging learning environment.
The power of all hands up and cold calling
Another key idea discussed in the podcast is the use of all hands up and cold calling as a means of student participation. By having all students raise their hands, teachers can create a more inclusive and engaging classroom environment. This technique also allows for backloading of means of participation, where teachers can choose different methods based on the responses of the students. Cold calling involves randomly selecting students to answer questions or share their thoughts, promoting active participation from all students and ensuring that everyone is accountable for their learning.
Three phases of questioning: listening, rehearsal, and understanding
The podcast highlights the importance of utilizing three phases of questioning: checking for listening, providing a chance for rehearsal, and finally, checking for understanding. Checking for listening involves asking students questions to ensure they are actively listening and comprehending the material. Rehearsal allows students to discuss their understanding with peers and practice explaining concepts before moving on to independent work. Lastly, checking for understanding involves students showcasing their comprehension and application of the material. By incorporating these three phases, teachers can ensure that students engage with the content on multiple levels and build a deeper understanding.
The instructional sandwich technique
The podcast emphasizes the effectiveness of the instructional sandwich technique. This technique involves sandwiching instructions or explanations between moments of anticipation and suspense. By initially creating suspense and then delivering the instruction, teachers can increase student engagement and interest. This technique helps maintain student attention and creates a sense of excitement in the classroom. By using the instructional sandwich technique, teachers can enhance student focus and maximize learning outcomes.
A novel approach: head down, fist on head
The podcast introduces a unique approach called 'head down, fist on head' as a means of collecting student responses. In this approach, students place their heads down on their desk, with one hand making a fist on top of their head. Each response is indicated by opening the fist silently. This technique ensures that student responses remain private, reducing peer influence and promoting independent thinking. It allows teachers to gather individual responses effectively while maintaining a quiet and focused classroom environment.
Science teacher, Pritesh Raichura, shares his insights about how to ensure 100% of our students are listening, thinking and understanding at each stage of a lesson. From All-Hands-Up Cold Calling, to high-frequency checks for listening, this episode is jam-packed with incredible, practical insights. You can access the resources and videos from the episode here: https://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/170-how-to-secure-100-student-engagement-with-pritesh-raichura/
Useful time-stamps:
Welcome to Pritesh (06:51)
Pritesh's favourite failure (10:37)
What does Pritiesh mean by attention? (19:25)
What does 100% attention look like? (22:53)
Is 100% attention really achievable? (28:15)
What is the relationship between attention and behaviour? (33:44)
All-Hands-Up Cold Call (46:06)
How do you secure attention when students are practising independently? (1:16:37)
Show Call (1:20:35)
High-frequency checks for listening (1:25:20)
Desks in rows (1:43:05)
S-L-A-N-T (1:58:10)
Silence as a default (2:08:36)
The instruction sandwich (2:18:44)
Making routines work in the classroom when they are not whole-school policies (2:26:51)
The three phases of questioning (2:33:41)
Backload the means of participation (2:45:51)
Turn and Talk (2:52:24)
Mini-whiteboards (3:10:59)
Head down, fist on head for answering multiple choice questions (3:21:38)
Pritesh's Big 3 (3:30:02)
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