No Hand-Raising?

In one of my special education classes last spring, we read an article about common “low-access” strategies and “high-access” strategies for the classroom.  One strategy discussed by the author was hand-raising.

The argument was that the traditional use of hand-raising was a low-access strategy.  As students and teachers, we all know that in most classrooms there are a few students who consistently raise their hands, some who will raise their hands when encouraged, and some who will never even consider raising a hand.  Generally, students who put up their hands first are called on first to share.  This means that not all students are held accountable for being attentive and active throughout class.  If it’s strictly volunteer, then the same students will always control the conversation.  If it’s generally volunteer with some cold-calling, then being called on without your hand up is seen as a punishment or reprimand (because it usually is!).  Wait time, which has been supported by research to be an effective strategy for improving student participation and understanding, is tough to enact when you’ve got two or three kids leaping out of their seats alongside a handful of students who don’t plan on raising their hands even if you waited all day. 

I know many teachers—and I had a few teachers—who would use the popsicle stick strategy in class, pulling students’ names randomly.  But I haven’t encountered any teachers who have explicitly done away with hand-raising.

I’m thinking about it for my future classroom, though.  Inform students up-front that they can raise their hands if they have a question, but that any raised hands in response to a teacher question will be ignored.  Let students know that the shouting out of answers and responses won’t be tolerated either.  Instead, use popsicle sticks (or cards or whatever) with student names to cold call for participation.  This would make wait time routine, and would also send the message that every student is expected to contribute to the class.

The difficulty, of course, and one of the reasons why I think hand-raising is so prevalent, is that we don’t want to put students on the spot.  There’s a fear of embarrassing students, and rightfully so.  No student should be made to look stupid in front of classmates.  However, I think that if you know your students and if you establish a classroom culture in which making mistakes or being unsure is OK, it could be effective.  Thoughts?

104 Notes/ Hide

  1. crapiwantbutdont reblogged this from iamlittlei
  2. sugartech reblogged this from iamlittlei
  3. northpride reblogged this from iamlittlei
  4. kyle-092200 answered: false! that was high-access strategy!
  5. sweetsugarboomboom reblogged this from iamlittlei
  6. sweetsugarboomboom answered: I am a kindergarten teacher and I have completely done away with raising of the hands for many reasons. The “popsicle” strategy is awesome!
  7. eatmebitches reblogged this from iamlittlei
  8. katy-mylady answered: I’ll second the Socratic Method response. You can also cold call on students and if they are unsure, then ask for someone to help them out.
  9. claio reblogged this from iamlittlei
  10. alexomega answered: yes, i think as long as saying “i don’t know” is understandable and allowed and not punished, this is a great idea.
  11. jazismile reblogged this from iamlittlei
  12. lunchboxed reblogged this from iamlittlei
  13. jakepogz answered: i dont know
  14. aimingforpretty answered: Perhaps you could go around the circle, or split the class into groups and get each member of one group to respond to a question.
  15. marumakoto answered: You may use the Popsicle stick strategy provided that you will make a “consolation” comments for those who didn’t give the right answers..
  16. newcalicious answered: Do some research on Socratic Discussions…sounds right up your alley and it works.
  17. This was featured in #Education
  18. iamlittlei posted this