Assigned: Questioning Techniques

I used cold-calling, with limited success, in my lesson on tone and imagery. I don't think students were less engaged; it's quite possible they were paying more attention to what their classmates were saying because they might be randomly called on. But to be honest, I can't really give too much detail on the class' response because I felt less in touch with the classroom environment when I was cold-calling. Part of the problem was just physical/logistical. In juggling a dry-erase marker, a sheet of notes, and a stack of cards with names on them, I repeatedly found myself in awkward situations where I wanted to write something on the board and/or glance at my notes and call on someone immediately afterward. Instead, I'd have to put one of the objects down, shuffle the cards, and then pick a name, creating a few moments of silence in which I might lose the class' active attention. This was in no way helped by the fact that--in a strange version of randomness--I drew the same 3 names over and over again.

I'm sure I'll try cold-calling at some point during the school year and I plan on trying out concept tests in another lesson this summer, but this first trial was not encouraging. If cold-calling means I'm less attuned to my students' level of engagement, I'd rather use my own method of quasi-arbitrary questioning. Sure, it opens me up to complaints from the kids who always raise their hands and aren't always called upon, but I think I'd get those anyways.

The most revelatory thing about this experiment was that it drove home how bad my classroom management (and my teaching in general) got toward the end of this week. Awkwardness with cards or not, I shouldn't be getting so flustered or unperceptive that I can't tell how a new technique was received by my students.

On a closely related note, the first student I cold-called for a response to "This Is Just To Say" (Who do you think Williams is writing to?) refused to say anything, until I prodded her a second time, and then declared that "it was a stupid question." Okay, unrepentant trigger-puller-lunch-eater that I am, I wrote her name on the board. She probably deserved to jump straight to one check (a call home) for the severity. As discussion rolled along, students participating more or less and generally not responding as well as I'd hoped, I decided the noise was getting too high and gave a few verbal warnings. Not much lasting effect, so I resolved to take a sacrificial lamb: unfortunately, the first person to talk after this mental resolution was the same girl. Check #1. Needless to say, she didn't like that, said she wasn't talking, and gave me enough lip to earn Check #2. Detention. Hooray.

As sacrificial lamb, she did her part; the room was basically quiet for the rest of the period. But I did feel like I had been a little too arbitray, a little unfair. When I gave her the detention slip after lunch she crumpled it up, may not have even put it in her backpack. Now, the girl most definitely has problems. Anger, etc. She's actually the oldest in the class, 16 and making up 7th grade English. But what I found out after dismissal (and after she got a 2nd detention for cursing me in front of Ms. B) is that she's also taking care of her step-dad (the only man who's ever treated her nicely) because he was shot in the stomach on Tuesday and is refusing to eat unless she makes him and because her mom won't take care of him for some reason. As Ms. B (whom she told all this) told her, all that still doesn't excuse her bad behavior. But golly if it doesn't explain some of it.

We're told to let whatever negativity we receive or whatever negative results we get just slide off our back--our students will forget about it and we'll do better next time. That's going to be a hard attitude to keep, as I don't forgive myself easily. Thankfully, forgiving ourselves doesn't mean we forget why we failed. This week, the axe will fall earlier and with greater consistency. And hopefully, as a result, with less frequency!