The longer a teacher talks for, the more likely it is the number of pupils paying attention decreases.

The trick to sustaining attention is to ask pupils questions and to expect 100% participation DURING an explanation. Questions interrupt the loss of attention. If done well, questions do not interrupt the flow of your explanation, as I once believed.

Three of the most powerful questioning strategies I have come across that help with the goal of sustaining attention through 100% participation are:

1. Checks for listening – I have dedicated a whole post to this strategy here. It is used with ‘all hands up cold calling’. In short, a ‘check for listening’ is a simple question to repeat what I have just explained, where I expect every hand up and where I pick a pupil at random to answer in a full sentence. E.g. “During photosynthesis, plants make a sugar called glucose. What is the name of the sugar all plants make during photosynthesis?” [Wait for all hands up]. “Joel.” [Joel answers in a full sentence].
2. ‘I say, you say‘ – more on this below.
3. Choral response‘ – more on this below.

All of these strategies have one overarching goal: to secure 100% attention (this is part of phase 1 questioning in the model of questioning I call the ‘Three Phases of Questioning‘. 100% attention is achieved with 3 considerations: to increase participation, accountability and pace (PAP).

A video demonstrating all of these can be seen here:

https://twitter.com/Mr_Raichura/status/1878445428397469859

I Say, You Say
During an explanation, I teach lots of words that are brand new to pupils because they are highly subject-specific. For example, the word ‘covalent’ or ‘ionic’ or ‘ionic compound’. When I encounter such a word during an explanation, I might say: “I say, you say: covalent!” and pause, and expect 100% of pupils in the room to chant, “Covalent!” back to me.

Participation: since every single pupil in my classroom is capable of listening and repeating a word back, I expect 100% participation. This strategies secures 100% attention through 100% participation.

Accountability: this strategy is quite low on accountability. This is because it doesn’t require particularly strong attention to repeat a word, especially with such a clear cue (“I say, you say…”). Although I do look to see if all mouths are moving in response, so there is some accountability, it is not particularly rigorous. (More on this below).

Pace: this strategy is very easy to seamlessly integrate into an explanation, mid-flow. It also feels highly energising so can really lift the mood in a room. Everyone in the room feels like they are together paying attention, so the explanation feels pacy, especially when a few of these are done in quick succession.

When to use? Use for new words or with words pupils have trouble pronouncing, or for words that are the most important in an explanation that you would like to stamp. For example:

“So the faster the object is moving, the more energy it has in its kinetic energy store. Faster means more kinetic energy. I say you say: “Faster means more kinetic energy.” It’s a way of chanting short phrases that build fluency. I wouldn’t advise using it for anything longer than a few words. 90% of the time, I use it for one-word repetition only.

Choral Response
Choral response is NOT the same as ‘I say, you say’. Choral response is about posing a question to the class which has a short answer, pausing and then saying: “On 3… 1, 2, 3!” And the class will chant the answer in unison after ‘3’. For example: “Plants make a sugar called glucose during photosynthesis. What sugar do plants make during photosynthesis? On 3 [Pause] 1,2,3!” The class shouts out ‘Glucose’ in unison.

Participation: This is clearly not as easy to participate in as ‘I say you say’. If you have a relatively inattentive class, you will not get 100% participation here. But this is good news! You now have concrete evidence that your class is either not listening closely enough or data that they are reluctant to participate. (This is assuming your question followed a clear explanation). However, the goal is for 100% of pupils to participate.

Accountability: since all pupils respond at the same time, there is low individual accountability. However, once it is a habit, the volume of the response can give you useful data about confidence. As with ‘I say, you say’ you can look for individual mouths moving to see if anyone is unsure.

Pace: The beauty of choral response is the extremely high pace that can be generated using this strategy. This is especially true if you do not wait for hands to go up, but expect everyone to chant in unison anyway. It is far superior to mini-whiteboards because you can fire lots of questions in very little time. Where mini-whiteboard win with high individual accountability since you can see each individual pupils’ answer, choral response saves time and adds huge pace to the lesson.

When to use:

1. Immediately after a sentence to check pupils were attentive. It is just like a ‘check for listening’ except you have 100% of pupils participating rather than one pupil sharing their answer.
2. As a series of quick-fire recap questions that involve the entire class. E.g. you might begin a new explanation with a check of pre-requisite knowledge, especially if you are confident they will remember it. It can be a very rapid way to gather lots of data.
3. Do not use this if you think there is weak individual accountability in the classroom & participation seems weak. Individual ‘checks for listening’ can drive up accountability.

Checks for listening

Participation: very low since only one pupil is picked after a question is posed.

Accountability: very high since an individual pupil can be held to account for paying attention and answering in a full sentence.

Pace: slows the pace down since you wait for hands up, and only one pupil gives an answer that is longer than one word.

Techniques vs Strategy
As Claire Stoneman recently wrote about, we must refrain from using techniques for the sake of techniques. Although, I have tried to explain the rationale for each of the three questioning techniques to secure 100% attention above, it is worth elaborating on the decision-making that underpins when to use each strategy. These strategies are only impactful when used with a full understanding of how they fit together in a broader strategy so teachers can decide skilfully when and why they should deploy a particular strategy.

If you want pupils to simply repeat words as a way of building the culture of participation and improving fluency with pronouncing words, use ‘I say you say’. This is easy to integrate seamlessly within an explanation and, as a minimum, can be used whenever introducing new words for the first time.

However, beyond such use, this is far too easy for most classes. There needs to be a leat a bit more than simple repetition! This is where choral response and checks for listening come into it.

When might you use a choral response versus a check for listening? The answer is to mix the two strategies together in a ratio that depends on whether you need high or low individual accountability for listening in the classroom. It is only when BOTH strategies are used together, can you maximise all three of participation, accountability and pace (PAP):

If the class is feeling lethargic, fire choral response questions to increase participation and add pace. If it feels like some individuals are coasting, post a question, wait for hands up (or not!) and pick an individual that needs to be held to account for listening.

The beauty of blending the two strategies is that you can ensure attention remains high through all three considerations of PAP.

This summarises key thinking around phase 1 questioning. Of course, none of these questions are particularly rigorous or involve much thinking. Their goal is to secure & sustain attention. To move beyond this, requires phase 2 or phase 3 questioning in the Three Phases of Questioning Model.

I have written about ‘turn and talk’ as part of phase 2 questioning before. Mini whiteboards are also useful here.

In a future post, I will come to designing and asking clever checks for understanding, as part of phase 3 questioning.

@Mr_Raichura / @PriteshRaichura.bsky.social