Cold Call, Cold Heart?

This week we were supposed to try a new questioning technique during our lessons. To me, "cold calling" seemed not only to be the simplest, but likely the most effective idea. Let me first define cold calling. The teacher takes either a bunch of pop sickle sticks or a stack of note cards and writes the names of one student on every card. For each question asked, the teacher pulls a name from the group and calls on that student. At this point... in theory... the student whose name gets called perks up from their usual morning lull and aptly gives the answer. In theory.

Since the teacher pulls names at random, it is meant to keep the students on their toes. It is meant to motivate them to pay attention so that when they are called on, they know the answer. It is meant to increase learning.

I was really excited to try out cold calling. Every lesson I have taught thus far has been first period and, needless to say, the kids are less than eager to volunteer. I figured that I would finally get to see them demonstrate all of the information I had helped them learn. 

At first it went pretty well. They were able to answer most of the questions with ease. I had been teaching about the writing process and they were able to list all of the graphic organizers and their corresponding styles of autobiographies. They also remembered the things I told them to look for while editing. But when we got to the last three things I wanted them to look for: spelling, grammar, and punctuation, we had problems. 

Up until that point, I had been cold calling on kids to go write their answers on the board under the corresponding heading that I had written. The student that I called on knew the answer to my question. He said it aloud before I asked him to write it on the board. This actually happened to be one of the better students in my class. He always volunteers, he never sleeps, and he is always polite. But the look of terror on his face when I asked him to write his answer... spell his answer, sent a chill down my own spine as I felt so terrible about what I knew was about to happen. 

He shuffled up to the board and picked up one of the dry erase markers. In tiny handwriting, he apprehensively wrote spelling. "Good!" I encouraged him to keep going, but at this point, the rest of the class had picked up on what was going on. Laughter began spreading around the room, and as I shot them "the look," he turned to a classmate to see if they had the words, grammar and punctuation written on their paper. No luck. As casually as I could, I walked up to the board to "save him." I took the marker, whispered in his ear and said, "Don't worry, I've got it."

That was the end of cold calling for the day. I felt like I couldn't risk humiliating another student. I understand that the whole point is to help them learn. But at that moment, I don't think I was helping anyone learn. It certainly seemed like more of a distraction than anything. My thoughts are this: in a "good" school district, where everyone is at grade level and can at least spell the words that they have been seeing over and over again in their lessons, cold calling might be a good idea. But in these districts, and especially in a summer school English class, I need to find a different way to promote participation.

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