Cold call…

The last few weeks have focused on building the sense of why it is important to address oracy through education. We have looked at various different reasons and motivations behind making dialogic learning spaces a priority. We have also looked at some of the blocks and barriers that make it difficult to fully embed oracy within schools.

Over the next few weeks, we are going to look at a series of clear, tangible actions that we can embed in all classrooms. These changes, individually and collectively, can ensure that a classroom, a school, an education system become truly dialogic spaces.

What is cold call?

Sometimes referred to as ‘no hands up,’ cold call is essentially the opposite of what you might expect to find in a normal classroom.

Typically, a teacher will ask a question and students will put up their hand if they know the answer. The teacher will then select one of the students who will respond to the question. Now, this approach can be problematic for the following reasons: ]

• Students who feel confident with the subject matter, or confident sharing their thinking, are far more likely to put up their hands.

• As we have already discussed, certain types of students are far more likely to feel confident in sharing than others.

• Similarly, unconscious biases will mean that teachers disproportionally call on the same students time and time again.

• This leads to a situation whereby those who are confident become more confident and those who are less confident become less so.

• This can also create an issue with teachers assuming that the class has a better understanding of material based on the verbal responses of a few students.

Some research carried out by leading charity Voice 21 indicated that it was entirely possible for a secondary aged student to go for a whole week without speaking in a classroom.

Cold call flips this narrative: instead of students stepping in to the conversation, the expectation is that any student can be called on to offer an answer to a question: this enables all students to be ‘welcomed’ into the group discussion, allows the teacher to control the types of questions that go to specific students and creates a meaningful, powerful statement that all voices are equally valued within a classroom.

What does it look like?

On the surface, cold call is simple. The teacher asks a question. No-one put their hand up. The teacher asks someone to respond. They respond.

However, underneath this, there are several significant changes that need to be made for this to work.

1. Students are creatures of habit. The majority of their lessons are built on the contract of hands-up policies. Teachers must explain to students what they are doing and why, otherwise the paradigm won’t change. Equally, they must be disciplined about reminding those who put their hands-up in response to a question that the rules have changed.

2. Lots of students will feel nervous about the prospect of suddenly being called on. Therefore, giving students the opportunity to think about their answer, rehearse it with a peer and then be ready to be called on would work very well as a bridging activity. We will cover Think; Pair; Share in more detail over the coming weeks.

3. As part of the above, whilst students are sharing with their peer, the teacher might listen in to the discussion between students who are reticent to share more widely. The teacher can then offer affirmation and warn the student that they will call on them - this is called warm calling and can be very powerful when encouraging more reluctant speakers to share their voices.

4. Wait time. This one is so big, it will get a newsletter all of its own next week.

Finally, it is worth saying that changes in routine and habit in classrooms, such as introducing cold call, are really challenging. They take dedicated practice….which again is something we will look it in more detail.