Sunday, October 17, 2010
No Opt Out
This year my entire district is going to be reading Teach Like a Champion, 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College. I was a little hesitant when I read the title - and let's face it - books that have been picked out for us before haven't always been stellar. My first glimpse of this book was refreshingly useful! Strategy 1 in this book is called No Opt Out and I think will be helpful in my class. We've all had kids that when they're asked to answer a question or share in class have 1 standard answer, "I don't know." What an easy cop out. This strategy's goal is to teach/reinforce to kids that it's not okay not to try. If a student doesn't know the answer, it's okay to say that, but once another student answers correctly or gives them a cue to help them answer, the teacher is supposed to circle back and have them answer. I'm not being very verbose, but I think you get the idea. Hopefully, it will help establish student accountability and validate students that participate and know the answers.
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I've read about this book and also read some of the commentary that has gone around it. Here is a link that you might find interesting.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt...an interesting and useful book.
http://numberwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/the-problems-with-lemovs-teach-like-a-champion/
And one more link with lots of other links about the Lemov book.
ReplyDeletehttp://teachers.net/mentors/profreading/topic6219/7.12.10.11.03.47.html
I read this post earlier in the week and it motivated me to re-visit this strategy. I do try to only call on people when I know that they know the answer, but that doesn't always work. We were working through a set of equations to find the coordinates of the y-intercept (I know, super exciting!) and one student was struggling with it. I let her off the hook the first time, then the second equation she still wasn't sure so I explained it differently, and by the third equation when I came back to her she had it. Thanks for the quick strategy share, Lori!
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