Simply Teaching Well

It's everyone's nemesis ... pacing. A lesson goes too fast, and you feel like you haven't done it justice. A lesson goes too slow, and you've lost them. How do you get it all in, and well? If you've asked this, you're not alone. Pacing an EL lesson well, so that we know students have learned and worked AND we're able to teach one lesson in a day, is one of those things that novice and experienced teachers alike can find challenging.

But strong pacing is incredibly important, both within and across lessons. It's easy to get off pace and next thing you know, it's late spring, and we're struggling to even begin Module 4. We're frustrated and rushed, and the kids aren't producing like we want them to. 

What's a teacher to do? Here are 5 of my favorite ideas to help with strong lesson pacing.

1. Set and use timers - in places in a lesson where you know it'll be tempting to slow way down such as student transitions, protocols, turn and talks, discussions, and question sequences.

2. Reach out to your academic coach for a time audit. He or she can come in and time stamp your lesson to see where you might be spending too much time and how you can adjust pacing.

3. Don't spend more than 5-10 minutes on learning targets. If your pacing is brisk out of the gate, it's likely to stay that way, and it's easy to get bogged down early in learning targets.

4. Don't add things to a lesson. The materials are designed to scaffold naturally.

5. Work with your academic coach to make sure you're beginning a Module with the end in mind. When you know where you're going, and what's most important, you're less likely to get off track in the day-to-day.

Looking for more?

• Here are tips from EL

• Here are tips from MCS teachers

If you’re wondering about the difference between a gist and a main idea (or theme), you’re not alone. It’s a common question because the terms are closely related and often used interchangeably. While similar, they are not the same.

The gist is your initial sense of what a text is mostly about. The word literally means the essence of a text. You get the gist when you skim or lightly read, forming a first impression. The main idea, on the other hand, is the key point the author wants you to take away. It can only be identified through careful reading and attention to important details.

Sometimes your gist turns out to be the main idea, but other times it doesn’t. That’s because gist is based on limited information, while the main idea requires deeper analysis of the entire text.

Here’s how this plays out in real life. Every Sunday, my husband and I get The New York Times. I skim my favorite sections with a cup of coffee, looking for articles that catch my attention. I might quickly read part of an article to get the gist. For example, I might think an article is about the benefits of planting vegetables in raised beds and decide to read it more closely. After careful reading, I may discover that the article really focuses on how to build a raised bed instead. My gist helped me decide whether to read, but identifying the main idea helped me truly understand the article.

Both steps—finding the gist and identifying the main idea—are essential for comprehension. Together, they help readers make sense of what they read. Here's a great video of kids explaining it themselves.

If you want to improve student engagement, one powerful yet simple strategy is implementing a Cold Call. It means exactly what it sounds like: students don’t raise their hands to answer questions. Instead, the teacher calls on students whether they’ve volunteered or not. While simple in theory, it can be challenging to break the habit of calling only on eager volunteers.

When teachers rely on raised hands, many students can opt out of thinking and participating. This also limits accurate formative assessment, since responses come from only a small group. Cold Call sets the expectation that all students should always be ready to contribute. It improves pacing, strengthens checks for understanding, and, when delivered with warmth, communicates that every student’s thinking matters. Most importantly, it’s an inclusive and equitable practice that amplifies all voices.

To implement this strategy, you only need a random name generator, and it can be as low-tech as popsicle sticks. A few key principles help ensure success:

• Be consistent: Use Cold Call regularly so students expect it and feel prepared.

• Be systematic: A clear, fair process reinforces trust and equity.

• Be positive: Cold Call is not a punishment—it’s an opportunity to shine.

• Be prepared: Know your questions, ideal responses, and which ones lend themselves to Cold Call in advance.
  
  

It  may feel uncomfortable at first, but it ultimately leads to stronger classroom dialogue and a more supportive learning community.

• Master Cold Calling

• The First Days of Cold Calling

• Cold Call is Inclusive

• Classroom Experiment

• What the Kids Say

It's spring. The trees are greening, we're having more warm days than not, and Spring Break is right around the corner. All of this means it's that time of the school year.

The Test is coming.

To begin - and to be perfectly transparent - the purpose of this post isn't to debate whether or not we should administer standardized tests, argue about the heavy accountability they carry, or rail against the system of assessments in general. No matter how we feel about them, they are here, they have a purpose, they are a reality, and they carry weight. 

Instead, the purpose of this post is to talk about what we should - and shouldn't - do when we begin to feel the testing crunch that comes around every spring.

Here's what often happens. Right around Spring Break, text-centered lesson preparation talk turns to "comprehension skills" we think kids are lacking, the Test-like writing prompts they need to learn to unpack, and how much time there is before The Test to have kids practice taking The Test with passages that come from ... you guessed it. The Test. Usually, you can cut the stress and tension with a knife.

And I get it. As a third grade teacher myself, I've done these things, and they're an understandable reaction to the anxiety we can feel related to The Test. There is a lot of accountability tied to it, and we all want our students (and, if we're being honest, our teachers and schools) to do well on it.

But I am here to tell you this. 

Reacting to The Test with lots of test preparation activities will not help students do well on it. It hasn't in the past, and there is no evidence to support the idea that it will now. 

After all, as a nation, we have had about 1/3 of our students reading at proficient levels since at least 1992, and we have done a LOT of test prep since then. 

Now, I'm not saying that students shouldn't have some familiarity with the format of standardized tests or the types of questions and tasks they encounter on them. The purpose of an assessment isn't for our students to do well; it's for us to see how well they can do. And I don't want the format of a test or question to be a barrier to students performing as well as they can so that we can make good decisions based on what we see. That's why, in our district at least, we give students occasional practice with cold-read passages throughout the year, using items released by the Tennessee Department of Education. 

But I am saying that stopping regular instruction with the curriculum after Spring Break to test prep, or spending large amounts of time during the school year using The Test passages or instruction targeted to specific skills or strategies, will not help our students. In fact, it can actually harm their ability to learn at levels that will help them do well, because each time we make a decision about how to spend our time, we are choosing what we will do and what we will not do. If we choose to spend our time doing lots of Test-related activities that don't work, that means we're choosing not to provide the kind of instruction that research shows actually makes a difference for kids.

So, what is the best test prep? As usual, I'll turn to Tim Shanahan and here's what he suggests.

1. Have students read extensively within instruction across the school year. These tests measure reading ability, and you are not likely to develop reading ability without letting students read. A lot. I'm talking time in text, miles on the road-type of reading.

2. Have students read increasing amounts of text without guidance or support. Independence is our goal, always.

3. Make sure that the texts we put in front of kids are rich in content and challenging. Lots of reading of easy texts won't prepare students for navigating difficult texts on their own.

4. Have students explain their answers and provide text evidence supporting their claims. They need to engage with the type of thinking that moves past simply picking evidence and to reasoning about why they chose it, how it supports their ideas and thinking, and whether they could choose something better.

5. Engage students in regularly writing about text, not just in replying to multiple-choice questions. Want to give student a chance to process their own learning AND see visible evidence of what each and every student is thinking and what misconceptions they've got, so you can make adjustments accordingly? Let them write. A lot.

If all of this sounds familiar, it should. It's the type of instruction that happens every day when we use our curricular materials really well. And when we do this - when every single day, every single student gets their hands and heads in complex texts and does increasingly sophisticated work and thinking with them - then The Test will NOT be the hardest thing they've done all year. The daily work they've done under your guidance will be the most rigorous thinking they've done, and The Test will seem simpler by comparison.

There are lots of reasons why what we typically do to prep for The Test doesn't work, and why we should instead choose to continue to give all kids access to very complex texts, challenging work, and strong instruction every single day of the school year. I encourage you to read through the articles and resources cited below to learn more about them. They are research-based and have stood the test of time. 

But in the end, really, it comes down to you. 

You have the power to control how you choose to spend your precious time at this point of the year and put The Test in its place. You can choose to react to The Test with stress and anxiety and a narrowed focus on what we've typically done - even though it hasn't moved the needle for our students. Or you can choose to respond with trust and confidence that the work you've done all year - and that you continue to do until the very last day - is preparing your students to do well on whatever task is put in front of them. Then, the Test will be just a matter of course.

As Tim writes, "If you want your students to perform at their best ... you will accomplish that not by having students practice items ... but by teaching students to read."

Want to learn more? Here's what I recommend:

• Shanahan, 2017: If You Really Want Higher Test Scores: Rethink Reading Comprehension Instruction

• Shanahan, 2017: Welcome 2017: Let's Teach, Not Test

• Shanahan, 2018: My Principal Wants to Improve Test Scores ... Is He Right?

• ACT, 2016: Reading Between the Lines

• Freitag, 2023: Keep the Tests, but Reform the Test Prep

• Shanahan, 2024: 'Tis the Season of Test Prep: Bah Humbug

If you haven't read Reading Reconsidered by Doug Lemov, Colleen Driggs, and Erica Woolway, I can't recommend it enough. 

Recently in our book study around chapter 5, I was struck by the idea of literary miles on the road. In the book, the authors write, "Students must read not only well but also widely and extensively. Running is a decent analogy. Sure, you can improve your results by studying up on the science of training. In the end, though, there is no way around the fact that success requires a lot of road miles. In the case of reading, we sometimes refer to this as 'miles on the page.' Quantity matters."

It's easy to look at our lesson plans or reflect on how a lesson went and think that our kids have done a lot of reading in the course of an ELA block. However, the authors pointed out some startling statistics. In a typical school day in New York City public schools, students were reading for TWENTY minutes per day; almost 40% of students did not read at all during the school day. Seems astonishing, no? 

But I wonder. How much of our time is spent getting ready to read, discussing what we've read, getting the supplies we need to read, finding the right page to read, reflecting on what we read ... and how much is spent actually reading? Actual eyes on the page, quiet classroom, minds on, purposeful reading?

If this is making you pause, too, here are some ways they recommend to maximize those road miles: "to help students read more, enjoy reading, and accrue the benefits of extensive reading."

There are three approaches to miles on the page in our classrooms, and each has its strengths and limitations. Because of this, we want to use each in ways that let us reap the rewards from their strengths and avoid their limitations. So, here's a description of each, along with concrete ways for using them well.

1. Students reading independently: The strength here is that it's sorely needed. However, keeping kids accountable and making sure they are reading well are a couple of limitations. To keep this accountable, you can:

• Limit text and gradually release. Have students start by reading smaller chunks during class with greater accountability, even if that means starting with just a few lines of text at a time. Then, increase the amount of independent reading done in class, and gather data through questioning, observation, and written work that showed they've comprehended it.

• Find a focal point. Tell kids what they should be reading or looking for before you launch independent reading. For example, "Take one minute and read paragraph 6 on your own. I'm going to ask you what Loyalists believe, so make sure you're looking for it." 

• Set time limits. Give students a finite period of time to read without telling them how much text they have to read. You can say, "When you hear the timer, mark the spot you've read to." This can help when kids rush to simply get through the text but don't read carefully. 

• Assign an interactive reading task. You can say, "I'm going to release you from here. Meet me at the end of chapter 12 and be able to tell me how Peter Pan responds to Hook in the chapter. Have at least one piece of evidence marked with a sticky note to support your answer." 

• Confirm and scaffold comprehension. The best are written checks, because they allow you to see evidence of every student's level of comprehension with the text and make adjustments accordingly. The best way to approach this is to allow kids to read, write, and THEN talk. So it can sound like, "Read back the part that introduces a factor the contributed to Jackie Robinson's success and then write one sentence that explains what that factor is." Only after you've spot checked everyone's work do you release them to talk.

2. Students reading aloud: The strengths are that it gives students time to practice fluency, you can get data on how they're doing, and there's simply pleasure in reading aloud done well. The limitations are that it's tough to keep all students engaged when just one is reading and doing this a lot may not translate to students reading independently. To keep this engaging, you can:

• Keep durations short and the reader unpredictable. When you ask a student to read aloud, that student is the "primary reader," and all other students are "secondary readers." Move quickly and randomly among primary readers. Students shouldn't know who you'll call to be a primary reader next or how long they'll read. Behind the scenes, you can control the game by assigning shorter pieces to some readers and longer ones to students who are ready for a bit more. 

• Reduce transaction costs. Transaction costs are the time you lose in moving from one thing to another. To reduce transaction costs here, when you are ready to switch primary readers, simply say, "Andrea," as her cue to begin reading. If Andrea has lost her place and can't pick up, call on another student just as quickly, move to her desk and get her recentered. Then call on her again soon.

• Bridge. Bridging happens when the teacher hops in between student readers to read a short segment of text. This could be a segment that's particularly hard, important to read with a lot of expression, or a key point of the text. 

• Spot check. Similar to cloze reading, teachers spot check when they read aloud, leave out a word, and the class chimes in on it.

• Rely on a placeholder. If you are close reading, this is critical as you move in and out of a text. So, you may say, "Finger in your book, and close it for a moment," before you discuss how Esperanza and Miguel reacted differently to a train ride. You could also say, "Finger freeze," or "pen to page to hold the spot" as a cue.

• Correct decoding errors. Reading carefully is an important skill to build, and that means reading every word accurately, all the way to the end. So, if a student misreads the word "inspection," you could quickly correct with "In-SPEAK-tion?" as a cue to self correct. I have also been known to hold a clickable pen in my hand as students read, and if they make an error they don't self-correct, I simply click the pen as a cue that they need to return and reread correctly. What you don't want to do is make the correction and have the student echo what you said, because they don't actually learn from fixing the mistake themselves. 

3. Students listening to oral reading: The strengths here are that is provides an expert reading model, it can ignite real passion for what's being read, and it gives kids access to texts that are much more complex than what they could read on their own. The limitations are that students don't get the practice they need, modeling can embed meaning (taking that rigor out of the work), and it keeps everyone at the exact same place. To ensure that this builds students' capacity to read on their own:

• Model really beautiful, fluent reading. This seems like a no-brainer, but it's critical. If you choose to read aloud to students, that means the text is very complex and new to your students. So, read it yourself in advance and think about how you'll chunk phrases together, what punctuation you want to punch, the words that may be difficult to pronounce and you want to decode slowly, and how you'll use the words to convey the tone and intention of the piece. These are moments when students are exposed to rich and varied syntax, collegiate-level vocabulary, and genres they may not be able to tackle independently yet (think Shakespeare). Invest the time in advance to read and practice them so your students see the level of attention to detail they need to approach difficult texts on their own.

No one way of reading is inherently better than the others; it's the varied diet of reading in service of miles on the page that'll really make the difference for our kids.

The texts and topics we put in front of our kids are challenging. Through these texts, students are learning about topics as wide-ranging as issues of water access around the world, Native American boarding schools, and the ratification of the 19th amendment. Most of the time, students enter a module of study with very little background knowledge about it, and the most of the time, our response is to build some background knowledge before students engage with the texts.

Pre-loading this background knowledge can look like showing videos, reading additional articles, or leading classroom discussions before we engage with a text, and it is done with the very best of intentions.

But I argue that doing this - giving kids background knowledge about the texts before they have the chance to read it for themselves - actually does a disservice to our students. 

If, as Doug Lemov writes in Reading Reconsidered, "... our responsibility as reading teachers is to ensure that students can create meaning directly from reading on their own..." (my emphasis added), then giving them our knowledge before they read makes them more dependent on us and moves us farther away from that goal of independence. Our goal is for them  - at the end of the year or the end of school altogether - to be able to approach a brand new, really difficult text, and make sense of it all by themselves, whether or not they have background knowledge about it beforehand.

Now, you may be thinking, "But what about all the research pointing to the role of background knowledge in reading comprehension?" And you'd be right. There's research going back to 1932 that shows readers use their knowledge to understand text, and it's why we know that teaching social studies and science content, reading meaty texts, smart consumption of educational media (think more PBS and less Minecraft), and the like are all no-brainers. 

But as Tim Shanahan writes, in literacy instruction, our goal isn't immediate comprehension of today's text; it's to build independent readers. If I'm always giving them background knowledge, instead of helping them develop the habits and behaviors they need to build knowledge from a text themselves, how do they ever learn to tackle a text on their own? Especially when they don't have a lot of relevant knowledge? 

I also dispute the claim that readers can't understand texts unless they already know a lot about them. If that's true, how does anyone ever read Shakespeare? Or a college text on chemistry? Or the directions to reset the low tire pressure light on my car? I've been able to make sense of all of those, even without a lot of background knowledge. It wasn't easy, but I called on the behaviors and habits I'd been taught when I grappled with hard texts in a classroom to make sense of them on my own.

I'll also argue that it's this ... this ability to make real sense of a text even when I don't know much about it ... than can level the playing field for our kids. Our students from historically underserved populations - our students of color, students from poverty, students with disabilities - will often not come to the table with the same breadth of knowledge as their more affluent peers. But if I can teach a student to make sense of a text even when they lack the background for them ... well, that's a game changer. They can build that knowledge for themselves. It's why Mario Vargas Llosa (2010) calls reading "a vaccine against populism, racism, and nationalism." 

Reading is more than finding information in texts that agrees with what I already know. In fact, we might do well to teach our students to question their prior knowledge, because research shows that knowledge can actually contribute to miscomprehension. If we really want them to learn from a text, they need to be able to set aside misconceptions they hold, approach a text with a sense of intellectual humility, and be willing to change their thinking with new knowledge from a text in hand. 

So, instead of pre-loading background information, I encourage you  (as a mentor of mine calls it), to let the text do the teaching. Because, as it did for the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, reading well allows us to live beyond where we are and independently build knowledge about ourselves and the world around us. And that can change everything. 

I get asked a lot about the practice of getting the gist of a text. Why do we ask students to do this? Why do we ask them to do it SO MUCH? (In some cases, lesson after lesson?) After all, our standards don't mention gist, so why on earth would we spend so much time on it? Good, valid questions all around.

There are some very important reasons why this is a critical practice for our kids to learn to do well by doing it often. 

Before we get into that, though, let's talk about what a gist is not.

• It's not the main idea. I've blogged about the difference between the gist and the main idea here, and it includes a fantastic video from 5th graders explaining the difference.

• It's not a skill. Skills are those things we can learn, master, and then check off (think phonics or grammar). Gist isn't a skill.

• It's not a new thing. Folks have used the word for years, just not always in the context of elementary reading lessons. We may have asked for the gist of a movie, conversation, or event, but not thought about the practice as it relates to reading comprehension.

Now, let's talk about what a gist is.

• It's a first understanding. On Sunday mornings, we get The New York Times. There is no way I can read the entire paper, but I want to read the articles that matter most, and carefully read a small number of those. So, I skim the headlines to see the topics and then I do a first, light reading of the articles that stand out. Once I have the gist of the article, I know whether I want to read it again more closely, abandon it, or recommend it to Claude.

• It's a reading practice. While finding the gist of a text isn't a skill, it is a critical reading practice that is a precursor for more careful analysis of a text, such as determining the central idea or writing a summary.

• It's the first step in the process of close reading. When we read closely, we return to a text multiple times to squeeze every drop of knowledge and understanding we can from it. Reading for the gist is the first step in that process of reading closely and carefully.

• It's a habit we need kids to develop. Finding the gist is a practice we need our kids to do well independently. We want it to become a habit of reading, so we need them to do it ... habitually.

In its simplest form, getting the gist is a reading comprehension practice to help students identify their initial thinking about what the text is mostly about.

And it's a practice that's critically important for several reasons. First, we need students to monitor their comprehension while they read - to track their understanding or lack of it - and if they are stopping periodically to think about and write the gist, they're more likely to do that. Second, the practice can help kids integrate information across a text as they think about what each section of the text is communicating to them. Third, it can help students access the most important information when they read. As expert readers ourselves, it's easy to forget how much cognitive effort our kids are putting in when they read really complex text; inviting them to stop and jot the gist at logical intervals helps them get that their ideas of their working memory and onto the paper so they can free up mental space and come back to those ideas later.

Think of reading as peeling an onion. If you want to peel back the layers of the onion to get to the core of it - in our case, the depth of knowledge and understanding students need to get out of a text - we have to begin by peeling back that first layer. That's the gist. 

In the classroom, if we're going to closely read a text, we should start with an initial reading of the text in which they write they gist of chunked sections in the margin. On a second read, they may underline reasons the author gave for their argument or some similar annotative thinking. With this understanding in mind, they may then write notes to help prepare them for a rich, text-based discussion or writing task that helps them understand. At each layer of the work, students are digging a bit deeper into the meaning of the text through some pretty complex thinking. But it all begins with that first, initial read and gist, and the later work will not be as rich if they haven't done the first.

When you work with this practice in your classroom, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Use the language of "the gist." This is a practice that builds consistently across the grade levels in EL, so it's important that we use that vocabulary consistently. You'll be saving your kids from confusion - and teachers in later grade levels will thank you, too!

• Keep it short. The gist should be very short - some folks say no more than 10 words. Don't hamper your students with a harsh word restriction, but the idea is to get their thought on the paper and then move on with the reading.

• Use it as a check for understanding. Use the gist as a check for understanding to see who's getting at least a surface-level understanding of the text in front of them. If they are, you're good to move on to deeper reading and thinking. If not, you'll need to adjust your instruction.

• Use it for accountability. If you are working to release the reading to your students and you wonder if they're actually reading, circulating to note their gists is a great accountability piece.

• Honor the power of the quiet. Readers need quiet to decode, link, synthesize, and think. That quiet can feel weird to teachers sometimes, but just take a look and see the effort your kids are putting into what they're doing and resist the urge to fill the quiet. Don't interrupt that first reading with vocabulary, comprehension questions, or the like. It's a skim, and it's okay to give your kids the mental space to do it. It's a powerful quiet.

I hope you see that getting the gist is purposeful and important work for our kids to do. Repeatedly. Because it's the kind of thing we want them to do for the rest of their lives to be good and careful readers, and it all starts in our classrooms.

I'm a big believer in beginning with the end in mind, and when we think about what we want our students to be able to do at the end of the year - and at the end of their education, really - independently reading really complex text is key to that. So, we want our instruction to include lots of opportunities for students to independently read and grapple with complex texts.

At the same time, a part of our job as teachers is to be the expert in the room with them, to guide them through knowing how to make sense of the text and analyzing it to the depth that's called for by the standards. And we should be asking kids to regularly work with texts that are too complex for them to make sense of independently right now. That means that there are times when we put a really tough text in front of our students and it is most appropriate to read it - or portions of it - aloud to them.

The problem that we encounter a lot is: How do we keep kids engaged, even when the text is being read aloud? How do we make sure they are truly "minds on," so they can get what they need from the read aloud and then take it into their own, second reading of the text?

If that sounds familiar, here are some ideas you can try that can help press for strong student engagement during a read aloud:

1. Read it all the way through without stopping. This is especially true of a first, gist read. The purpose here is not to teach vocabulary, ask questions, or make note of connections or things you're thinking. The purpose is for readers to begin to get a picture of the whole piece - to get the lay of the land, so to speak - so that they are better able to deeply parse chunks of the text on a second read.

2. Read with appropriate fluency. Read alouds are incidental fluency instruction, so don't miss this opportunity! Be sure you are altering your pace, chunking phrases together, using volume as appropriate, attending to punctuation, read with good (though not overdone) expression, and the like. A boring, rote reading will lose them every time.

3. Circulate. Project the text on the board if you need to, but also have a copy in hand that you can use as you walk the room. One strategy I love for circulating is Teach Like a Champion's "Break the Plane," and you can read more about circulating a classroom here.

4. Give them a purpose or question for reading. Either establish a purpose ("We're reading this article so we can learn more about this type of frog and add it to our notes for our book") or pose a question ("Who were the Loyalists and what did they believe?"). Every time. It's easy to skip, but it becomes glaringly obvious how important this is when I'm in professional learning, am asked to read something, and I have no idea why.

5. Establish a "student do." Should they track the text with a finger or a pencil? Should they whisper read the text with you? Should they underline text that supports the purpose or question they're answering? There is a time and place for simply listening to a read aloud for pleasure, with no ask of the student other than enjoyment. I would argue that instructional time isn't it; make sure there is a clear "student do" during the read aloud, that students know what it is and how to do it, and that you're circulating (see above) for accountability.

It can be hard - especially if you're early in your career - to juggle teaching content and monitoring engagement at the same time. (Or maybe it was just me.) Try inviting your coach in to observe and note student engagement, or video a lesson and watch it to see what your students do during a read aloud. If engagement could use a boost, try the above and see how they work!

I've been thinking a lot about concrete ways in which we can improve at releasing the work to the kids, especially when we're asking them to dig deep and think in sophisticated ways. I ran across this strategy - Pose-Pause-Pounce-Bounce - from British educator Dylan Wiliam recently, and it seems to fit the bill: simple, doable, and effective at moving the cognitive lift to your students.

Typically, when we pose questions to kids, it follows a predictable pattern of Initiation-Response-Evaluation (IRE). So, I may ask, "What central idea do we see the author developing in this section of the text," (initiation), a student may say, "Jackie Robinson had characteristics that made him well-suited to serve as an agent for change," (response), and then I might say, "Yes! We see that in his calm demeanor, his clear mission, and his ability to communicate well," (evaluation). If you notice, I asked the question, the student responded, and then I evaluated the response and went on to fully answer the question myself. One student (maybe) and I did the thinking and learning here.

Instead of this, Wiliam calls for the Pose-Pause-Pounce-Bounce (PPPB) questioning sequence that's better at eliciting deep thinking. In it, the teacher:

• Poses a question

• Pauses to give suitable think time

• Pounces on one student for an answer

• Bounces that answer to another student who builds on the response

If I rework my above example with PPPB, I might ask the same question (pose), give the kids some quiet think time (pause), then call on one student to answer (pounce). That student may say, "Jackie had characteristics that made him well-suited to serve as an agent for change." I'd then say, "Thanks for that start! Jordan, can you build on what Emily said?" (bounce) and after Emily added on say, "Lola, would you like to add on or react to Jordan's thoughts?" (bounce again)

If IRE is the ping-pong of questioning, then PPPB is the team-centric, basketball version that can help deepen student discourse and thinking.

If you try this in your classroom, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Use an open-ended question that requires some thinking and discussion from your kids.

• Be sure to give that silent thinking time. 

• Use Bounce as a form of check for understanding to informally assess progress. If you're not getting a lot from bouncing the response around the room, you know you need to back up a bit and reteach. If several are really digging in and they know their stuff, you may be good to move on.

• Try preparing the Pounce and Bounce ahead of time, anticipating the responses you think you'll get and how you could push another student to take the idea farther.

• Implement a No Hands Up or Cold Call policy to make sure you're hearing from as many students as possible

Want to learn more? Check out what Dylan Wiliam has to say about the strategy in a video here.