When I started teaching, I liked to make sure I was giving every student a chance to answer questions. I used popsicle sticks to make sure I wasn’t accidentally giving preference to certain students.
Then I discovered something powerful that changed how I asked questions in class. I called it “every student, every question.” It’s the piece that allows a good presentation to keep students on their toes throughout the lesson. It’s not good enough to ask one student to answer a question for the class. You want every student taking an action every single time there’s a question. Maybe they are asked to “think-pair-share”, maybe write in their INBs, turn and talk, or use an online platform.
My calls to action were built right into my presentation and they came up every few slides. I even marked them with a little icon at the top left letting students know that they were about to take some form of action. I called them quick actions because generally they didn’t take more than a few minutes to complete.
Does it really make that much difference? It does!
Let’s say you have a class of 30 where you verbally only ask certain individuals questions. Maybe you ask 10 questions a day to different students. That means students each get about one question every 3rd day, which is about 62 questions per student per year.
In contrast, let’s very conservatively say you ask the entire class 5 questions/day. In this scenario each student will answer about 25 questions per week. That’s about 925 answered questions for each student by the end of the year.
Which class is going to be smarter?
Which class is going to retain more?
Which class is going to be more successful in the long run?
It’s super powerful and you can put this strategy into your class immediately.
