The Cold Call

A couple weeks ago, my principal started doing teacher observations. She has a lengthy list of best practices she expects to see teachers use, and part of her criteria includes having every student participate in class. While this is a worthy end, I was worried about what it would take to reach that end: calling on students without their hands up, also know as a Cold Call.

Generally, I do not like to cold call students. I don’t want my students to feel anxious in class about being called to answer a question at any moment. I don’t want to make my English Language Learners (most of my class) feel self-conscious about their speaking ability. I don’t want to stare nervously at a student as they stare nervously back at me. I don’t want to call on a student who got two teeth pulled in the break between classes (this actually happened to me a few weeks ago when I cold called a student!).

However, I realized my principal was right. The same few students were dominating the conversation in my class, and I couldn’t be sure if the other students understood what we were learning. So, I decided I would try a modified cold call that would set my students up for success.

One way I modified the cold call is by announcing it. Before a cold call activity, I tell my students, “Every one of you will get a chance to answer a question, so be ready!” That way, my students don’t have to spend all of class worried about when they will be called. They can be productively worried for one activity and then know when their turn is over. I guess that makes it more of a warm call, because I warm them up and prepare them to answer even if they don’t know what order they will be called.

Another way I modified the cold call is by having it occur with the same types of activities every day. This helps students have the vocabulary they need to answer questions. I always call on every student during number talk, and my questions are always the same, “What answer did you get? How did you find your answer?” The familiar frame helps my English Language Learners know that they understand the question, which helps them answer it confidently. They also get used to the types of words we use to answer those questions, such as “add,” “subtract,” “count on,” “doubles,” and “place value.”

My final modification is that I generally do cold calls for “how” questions rather than “what” questions. As I mentioned in my number talk example, I ask students what answer they got and how they answered it. I usually have five or more students answer the same number talk question, so only the first student called has to go out on a limb with answering the “what” question. The rest of the students provide different ways of “how” they solved it. Students have more chances to be successful with a “how” question than with a “what” question. I am also able to provide better feedback to modify incorrect “hows” than to negate incorrect “whats.”

Now that I have tried the modified cold call in my classroom, I’m not sure how I ever taught without it. I love getting every student involved in class and getting to hear their thought processes. I haven’t perfected it yet, but I am happy with the modifications I have made so far.