2. Listen in on many classrooms at all levels, and you'll
probably hear teachers asking question after
question. With so many questions coming at them,
students have little time to think.
Looking at it another way: the more questions that
are asked, the less thinking occurs.
3. Classroom observations reveal that teachers typically wait
less than 1 second for students to respond to a question.
Teachers often conclude that students don't know the answer
to a question if they don't respond quickly.
And when they do respond, they usually use knowledge-level
responses.
4. Classroom observations also reveal that if a
student manages to get a response in, most
teachers tend to ask another question within
an average time span of 9⁄10 of a second!
6. Classroom observations also reveal that
if a student manages to get a response
in, most teachers tend to ask another
question within an average time span of
9⁄10 of a second!
8. Is this a problem?
Yes!
But here's an interesting solution: increase the time between asking a question
and having students respond to that question from the typical 1 second to 5
seconds.
9. This is known as wait time…
Believe it or not, this simple act produces significant and profound changes in the
classroom, including:
The length of student responses increases 400 to 800 percent.
The number of unsolicited but appropriate responses increases.
Failure to respond decreases.
Student confidence increases.
Students ask more questions.
Student achievement increases significantly.
11. Wait time is the period of silence between the time a question is asked
and the time when one or more students respond to that question.
Silence, a concept that many students have difficulty with, especially if
they are not engaged in the lesson.
A side note – a teacher must build “excitement” into his/her lessons.
Also, when working with ELL students know your students as different
cultures have different social morés regarding speaking or not speaking.
13. TIP ….
When you ask a question, don't preface it with a student's name, for
example, “Marsha, what are some of the reasons why Leonardo da Vinci is
considered a genius?”
As soon as you say one student's name, all the other brains in the room
immediately shut down.
Often, the other students will be saying to themselves, We don't have to
think now because Marsha is going to answer the question.
14. Instead, ask the question, wait, and then ask for a response. Interestingly,
you'll discover a heightened level of involvement.
Everyone has to think about a response because nobody knows who will
be called on to respond.
And, the responses you receive will be considerably better and there will
be more group thinking.
16. Wait time provides students time to percolate a question down through
their brain cells and create an appropriate response.
Wait time is especially important for the ELL student as sometimes there
is some translation going on in there.
After you ask a question, let it percolate in students' heads for a while.
And after a student responds, let the response percolate as well.
You'll wind up with a much better brew in your classroom.
