Cold Call
Description:
Cold Call is the act of calling on students to answer questions at random, and not based on who volunteers to participate. One benefit of using this technique is it allows you to check how well students have learned the material. Another is that it gives everyone a chance to participate, including the students who have good things to say, but will not say anything on their own. It also engages the classroom, since the students will expect to be called on at some point during the class. Lastly, it makes for a more efficient classroom, since you don’t have to wait for students to respond. A few principles need to be followed for this technique to be used successfully.
1. Cold Call is predictable: This should be part of the class routine every day so that students can anticipate being called on. This changes the class behavior by making everyone more focused.
2. Cold Call is systematic: It must be clear that the goal is not to single anyone out, but rather simply the way the class is run. Make it known that everyone has an equal chance of being called on.
3. Cold Call is positive: The goal of cold calling is to get the students called on to know that their insight is wanted in the conversation. It should never be used as a tool to call a student out who is misbehaving, but rather try to get the student to answer correctly.
4. Cold Call is scaffolded: It is often helpful to begin a sequence of questions with easy ones that the students already know the answers to. Progressively make the questions more difficult, and ask a different student for each question. Effective sequencing of the questions include linking to a previous question, linking to another students’ comment, and linking to student’s own earlier comment.
Variations of Cold Calling are as follows:
1. Hands Up/Hands Down: There are benefits to both allowing students to raise their hands and not allowing hand raising. Taking hands allows you to more easily pick out who to save the difficult questions for, and it allows you to continue to encourage students to volunteer, even though all students still have a chance of being called on. By telling students to keep their hands down, it is less obvious when you are checking particular students for understanding, and it saves time without having to look through the raised hands. Using a combination of the two variations usually has the most success.
2. Timing the Name: The order of when you ask the question and say a student’s name greatly affects the class. By asking a question, pausing, and then saying a student’s name, everyone in the class is likely to solve the problem in their minds, because they know that they may be called on. By saying a name before asking a question, on the other hand, can be useful for students who have a hard time processing language or are not used to being cold called. It can also be used for clarity so students know the question is only for that student.
Why does it work?
Cold Call is effective, because it fits in with psychologist Vygotsky’s idea of scaffolding. Scaffolding is giving maximal support in the beginning, and lessening help as students don’t need it. As stated previously, one of the requirements for cold calling to be successful is to have it be scaffolded. Cold calling is a way to use the idea of scaffolding during lessons by asking easier questions first and working your way up to more difficult questions.
Vygotsky’s idea of the Zone of Proximal Development, Z.P.D., also proves cold calling to be effective. Z.P.D. is the level that students can perform tasks at with the help of a more knowledgeable other. In other words, the task is neither easy enough to do on their own, yet not so difficult that it’s impossible to do even with help. Our goal as teachers is to determine the Z.P.D. of our students so that we can teach in that level. Cold calling is a method of assessing how well students have learned the material, and it can determine their Z.P.D. By having the questions scaffolded, you can tell when you’ve hit the point where students need your guidance to answer the questions.
Cold calling is also a method to use differentiated instruction, which is a teaching method in which a lesson challenges all the academic levels of the students in a class. Since a series of cold calling questions is usually scaffolded, you can call on students who are struggling with the material more for the first few questions, and then call on students who are confident with the material for the more difficult questions. One key component of differentiated instruction is not separating students by ability, and cold calling does a good job of challenging multiple levels of abilities while keeping the students in one group.
Example:
Since cold calling must be used daily in order for it to be effective, I will use this in my math class in various situations. An example of a time that I can use cold calling is reviewing the class’ homework from the night before. Questions that I could ask include the following:
(Name), what did you get for number __?
Did you get the same answer, (name)?
How did you solve the problem, (name)?
Is there another way to solve the problem, (name)?
What problem did you have the most trouble with, (name)?
(Name) can you tell (previous student) how you solved the problem?
Cold Call is the act of calling on students to answer questions at random, and not based on who volunteers to participate. One benefit of using this technique is it allows you to check how well students have learned the material. Another is that it gives everyone a chance to participate, including the students who have good things to say, but will not say anything on their own. It also engages the classroom, since the students will expect to be called on at some point during the class. Lastly, it makes for a more efficient classroom, since you don’t have to wait for students to respond. A few principles need to be followed for this technique to be used successfully.
1. Cold Call is predictable: This should be part of the class routine every day so that students can anticipate being called on. This changes the class behavior by making everyone more focused.
2. Cold Call is systematic: It must be clear that the goal is not to single anyone out, but rather simply the way the class is run. Make it known that everyone has an equal chance of being called on.
3. Cold Call is positive: The goal of cold calling is to get the students called on to know that their insight is wanted in the conversation. It should never be used as a tool to call a student out who is misbehaving, but rather try to get the student to answer correctly.
4. Cold Call is scaffolded: It is often helpful to begin a sequence of questions with easy ones that the students already know the answers to. Progressively make the questions more difficult, and ask a different student for each question. Effective sequencing of the questions include linking to a previous question, linking to another students’ comment, and linking to student’s own earlier comment.
Variations of Cold Calling are as follows:
1. Hands Up/Hands Down: There are benefits to both allowing students to raise their hands and not allowing hand raising. Taking hands allows you to more easily pick out who to save the difficult questions for, and it allows you to continue to encourage students to volunteer, even though all students still have a chance of being called on. By telling students to keep their hands down, it is less obvious when you are checking particular students for understanding, and it saves time without having to look through the raised hands. Using a combination of the two variations usually has the most success.
2. Timing the Name: The order of when you ask the question and say a student’s name greatly affects the class. By asking a question, pausing, and then saying a student’s name, everyone in the class is likely to solve the problem in their minds, because they know that they may be called on. By saying a name before asking a question, on the other hand, can be useful for students who have a hard time processing language or are not used to being cold called. It can also be used for clarity so students know the question is only for that student.
Why does it work?
Cold Call is effective, because it fits in with psychologist Vygotsky’s idea of scaffolding. Scaffolding is giving maximal support in the beginning, and lessening help as students don’t need it. As stated previously, one of the requirements for cold calling to be successful is to have it be scaffolded. Cold calling is a way to use the idea of scaffolding during lessons by asking easier questions first and working your way up to more difficult questions.
Vygotsky’s idea of the Zone of Proximal Development, Z.P.D., also proves cold calling to be effective. Z.P.D. is the level that students can perform tasks at with the help of a more knowledgeable other. In other words, the task is neither easy enough to do on their own, yet not so difficult that it’s impossible to do even with help. Our goal as teachers is to determine the Z.P.D. of our students so that we can teach in that level. Cold calling is a method of assessing how well students have learned the material, and it can determine their Z.P.D. By having the questions scaffolded, you can tell when you’ve hit the point where students need your guidance to answer the questions.
Cold calling is also a method to use differentiated instruction, which is a teaching method in which a lesson challenges all the academic levels of the students in a class. Since a series of cold calling questions is usually scaffolded, you can call on students who are struggling with the material more for the first few questions, and then call on students who are confident with the material for the more difficult questions. One key component of differentiated instruction is not separating students by ability, and cold calling does a good job of challenging multiple levels of abilities while keeping the students in one group.
Example:
Since cold calling must be used daily in order for it to be effective, I will use this in my math class in various situations. An example of a time that I can use cold calling is reviewing the class’ homework from the night before. Questions that I could ask include the following:
(Name), what did you get for number __?
Did you get the same answer, (name)?
How did you solve the problem, (name)?
Is there another way to solve the problem, (name)?
What problem did you have the most trouble with, (name)?
(Name) can you tell (previous student) how you solved the problem?