Cold Calling is a way to do a Check for Understanding (CFU) with one student at a time. The aim is to make engaged participation the expectation, so you call on your students regardless of whether they have raised their hands.
It is important to have a class culture where students do not fear making a mistake - not knowing is a way of learning, and is an important source of feedback to you.
- Start with easier questions and build to more complex ones.
- Allow multiple answers to a question, then work through the possible answers with the class to arrive at the best answer which could be a combination of various students' contributions.
Tech and Cold Call
Unless you are following a particular plan, Cold Calling needs to be random. You can use a random name picker to choose, eg:
It has the following benefits:
- You can add your own list of names quite easily.
- You can Save that list easily.
- You can adjust the time it takes to choose, to heighten of reduce tension!
- Best of all - once a student has been chosen, you can exclude her from future selections (eg when choosing who will present next, or keep her in the mix (eg when doing CFU).