Cold Callers Welcome: Creating a Culture of Confidence

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I hang up. Do you? The phrase 'cold caller' tends to fill many people (myself included) with rage and a sense of despondency at the state of humanity. Also labelled as 'picking on' students or 'hands down questioning', cold calling aims to increase engagement and provide natural scaffolding and differentiation, as well as allowing frequent and varied assessment for learning. I will admit, it's also something I have been fairly reluctant to adopt into my regular teaching style. I have used it in the past, but I frequently revert to 'hands up' responses in lessons, and I have felt the whole room collectively relax when I do (for good or bad). However, with our faculty adopting more and more TLAC and Reading Reconsidered approaches, it seemed inevitable that cold calling (as Lemov calls it) would be something that we needed to embed. Now, after several weeks of exploring the concept and trialing ideas with a couple of my classes, I thought I would share some of my thoughts and experiences here.

N.B. I am by no means an expert and this may not be what is considered good practice. I am simply reflecting on my experiences with cold calling, coming from a position of relative reluctance.

1. The Starting Point

Initially, I was fairly cynical about cold calling. My feelings were that, while it worked for some classes, it simply didn't for others. I was more inclined to use cold calling with lower attaining KS3 classes: I felt the perfection anxiety was too much of a risk in high ability sets and I found that, when I did try it on occasion in KS4 and KS5, students would often refuse to answer. I also found it easier to remember names in smaller classes, and I didn't have that awkward misnaming moment that interrupts the flow of the lesson as much. I had also felt the room turn hostile when using cold calling in the past, either towards me (then students point blank refuse to participate) or towards each other (getting frustrated when people don't know the answer or get something wrong). I didn't like that, and I wasn't too confident in my methods of dealing with it and steering the lesson ahead regardless, so it was something I paid lip service to before returning to trusty hands up.

I also felt there was a lot of negativity around the concept among students. I conduct pupil voice surveys with my classes at the start of every year, and I found that students responded repeatedly about how much they hated the teacher 'picking on them' or when they were 'forced to answer'. Many said it was the worst thing that could happen to them at school. Clearly, the feelings towards this technique were strong, and they were negative. This was something that needed to be investigated before attempting anything, in order to have any chance of success.

When done well, the benefits are clear. So how can I shift my classroom culture to agree?

2. A Clean Slate

The negativity towards cold calling in my students could be broken down into three disctinct areas to address:

• Students want to feel listened to. Actually listened to. Not answering a question and us twisting the words to say what we wanted the to say to further the lesson, but actually to have their ideas validated.
• Students want to feel safe. That sounds dramatic, but they want to feel they can share ideas without being mocked by peers, chastised by the teacher for having something wrong, or judged for misunderstandings
• Students want to feel empowered. This links closely to the previous point. If students feel they are in a safe learning space, they feel empowered to try new things, build on others' ideas and be more reflective about their own learning. This can only happen once the first two conditions have been met.

What became apparent very quickly was that the negativity towards cold calling stemmed from the feeling that, as a student, it felt like the teacher was picking on you. I am guilty of this; I have often used cold calling as a behavioural tool to highlight someone's lapse in concentration. It is very effective, but the unintended consequence is that is creates a sense of anxiety and fear around questioning, that the teacher is looking to 'catch you out'. This is something that needed to be addressed properly, and would take time. TLAC and Reading Reconsidererd both rely on a strong culture of teamwork and positivity in the room, and that doesn't happen overnight. Reframing teacher questioning to be a positive experience and a sharing of 'works in progress' rather than a judgemental trial was the first step I needed to take. I then needed to look at the language I was using when questioning to make sure my students felt heard, felt validated but did't feel patronised. I also needed to refine this in order to empower both higher and lower attaining studetns within the room. Finally, I needed to tactially make it habitual, incrementally introducing it so students feel safe at all times rather than being put on the spot.

3. The Process in Action

I chose my Y8 class as my trial class. I had them in Y7, so there was a fairly strong relationship I could build on (and I knew most of their names which helps with logistics), and they were a really good mix of ability and attitude towards learning. I have students who would happily hold a conversation with me all day and not care about mistakes, and I have students who would cry or walk out rather than answer a question. They are also a class who have a guaranteed bank of about 8 students who will always put their hands up and give things a go, so I knew they had that culture established and I had to work to change it.

Work started a couple of weeks before the cold calling began. I did a lot of modelling of semtence work and asked volunteers to read what was on the board. I also got students to share ideas with each other in twos and fours. All of this was to build a bit of experience in all students of formulating and sharing ideas. I came around and listened to groups, and ensured I commented positively to quieter students as they shared.

In our readaloud tasks, I modelled fluent and confident reading as well as modelling mistakes (not intentionally, but it turned out to be useful). If I misread something, I stopped, acknowledged and corrected. I even found that a couple of students mentioned 'I read it like that too, miss', opening the floor for cameraderie in erroneousness. It showed students that mistakes were fine, it wasn't a reflection on the mistake maker, and one simply corrects and moves on. Showing myself to be fallible strengthened that relationship, and paved the way for the 'safe space' to be a reality. Students were then asked to read aloud, and I consciously chose confident students at this early stage, with a hands down approach. This was to build the idea of the task aim being success, rather than judgement. It was baby steps, but an important part of the process for this class.

Then the time came. I announced to the class that we will have a no hands up challenge. This meant no one was allowed to put their hand up to answer a question, only ask. They had to monitor me as I monitored them, and tell me off if I had asked for hands up. This meant they were in on it too and we were a team. Again, all this was to build trust in the room.

We then did some 'art of the sentence' work (remember the sentence work I mentioned earlier?). The repetition of task format meant it was low stakes, and the fact it was being used for retrieval further lowered the stakes. Students wrote their sentnces, then shared them with a partner. This provided a buffer before whole class sharing, where initial errors could be picked up. It also meant that assessment for learning could be done and cover pairs rather than individuals.

Importantly, before doing any readaloud or cold calling activity, I say to the students that it is a privilege to hear their classmates read/hear their classmates' work. I also say that I am excited/looking forward to hearing what they have to say, or something to that effect. This may seem like overkill, but I know that if this failed it would take twice as much time and effort to get back to this stage, and it was important that I had buy in (even if it was ironic!).

Then the cold calling began. I started with a couple of the more confident students. I toyed with the idea of them sharing their partner's ideas, but rejected that on the basis that they should have ownership of their work, their praise and their next steps in order to feel empowered. I responded to each offering with 'I really liked it when you said _____' or 'I'm really interested in ________. Can you expand on that? (or pass this question on to someone else). By deliberately quoting words or phrases they had used, it was clear I had listened and I was responding with specific and meaningful praise rather than a blanket 'well done' or 'very good'. I've seen my Head of Faculty do this before, and its a genuine fuzzy moment when you see a child beam from the concentrated and deliberate attention they have received from the expert in the room. Even the more reluctant ones giggle, but the beam glimmers through. Another benefit was that it stopped me from paraphrasing and developing their response myself, which is a habit I wanted to crack. Through doing this, I realised that part of embracing student response means, to some extent, relinquishing some control over the lesson. It's clear that, with some experience and skill in questioning, pace and progress can be maintained, but that is something I will have to hone further over time.

I did this for the first couple of lessons. Then, I started asking without the pair share prequel. Again, the focus was success. After doing this for a couple of lessons, I went all in. I started the lesson with a 'because, but, so' sentence challenge, using the words 'tyrant' and 'vivacious' (adapting the words to suit the sentence). Students were asked to write a sentence about anything they know so far about Animal Farm (we are currently on chapter 4) and to include the vocabulary. An extra challenge was a subordinating conjunction starter: write a sentence starting with 'although' and include the word 'comrade'. Five minutes.

First of all, the concentration in the room was fairly instantaneous. For a class that houses a couple of the worst Classcharts behaviour in the year, this was a win. Thank you, 'Because, But, So'! But the thing that really struck me, as I meandered through the desks, was the vibe in the room. It's hard to explain, but I'd noticed a general shift. The working atmosphere felt different. The motivation felt authentic. And it came to fruition when we completed the next task:

"Right then, Y8, let's workshop a couple of sentences together. I'm excited to hear your thoughts on the story so far!"

Until I had reflected back on the lesson, I didn't realise how much my teacher talk had changed. The deliberate choice of 'workshop', implying that we will work together to build something, along with the positive reinforcement of 'excited' set the tone for a positive, collaborative effort, far from the 'picking on' mentality of days past.

And so we began. Initially, I said I would listen to around five contributions and go from there. Students could pick the sentence they wanted to share. This is where it gets exciting. It became apparent that some students were not sharing their best sentences. Rather, they were sharing sentences they wanted a second opinion on, or clarification. So we workshopped them. We worked with them on the board. We took a lopsided complex sentence and turned it into an appositive. We moved commas around. We checked and changed 'tyrant' to 'tyranny', or used a determiner where one was absent. Initially, I led the edits, but after a couple of shares I passed it over to others. Students were thoughtful in their comments about each other's work, and approached it academically. In other words, they focused on the work and did not see it as a reflection of the person. Off the back of some shares, others volunteered their sentences to show different word ort structural usage. It wasn't the usual students wanting to share and, I'll admit, I did take some hands up at this point, but then passed it back to others using cold calling again. I felt it working. and it felt good.

But there were two more tests. The first was to involve three particular students. One had been in the class for the time I had taught them, but was very disengaged: a 'too cool for school' type. She had, in the past, point blank refused to answer questions, read aloud, or take part in anything that involved sharing ideas. I have plenty of very shy and quiet students in the class, but she had attitude and a directed anger towards the prospect of being called upon. I needed to win her. I broached it with a knowing smile that said to her 'I know I'm being silly and over the top but please play along', and her smirk told me I was in with a chance. She shared. She had used the noun form of 'tyrant' rather than an adjective, so we changed it. And then she responded, "But why?" And in that moment, I know I had won. She should have known, probably, but the point was that she cared enough to ask. Someone else in the class was called upon to answer, and we moved on.

The other two girls were new to the class, both moved for behaviour and engagement. I had dealt with one when she had been removed from her class previously, and I knew how difficult she could be. I also had it on good authority that the other had kicked off when asked to present to the class before. So it was with fairly baited breath that I approached them for their sentences. I was feeling bold, so I asked them for what was, in their opinion, their worst sentence. And they both, calmly (and one, dare I say it, fairly eagerly) responded. They reflected when I asked why they felt it was their worst sentence. I told them what I liked about them, and then asked someone to workshop and correct, as before. And I finished up by asking someone what the liked about the sentences. The response was thoughtful and precise, and I even caught a sliver of a satisfied smile from one of them before the facade of teenage indifference returned. In doing that, they were welcomed into the class on an academic level and they (sort of) liked it. Wow.

I realise I sound preachy and probably pretty irritating. I am not God's gift to questioning, and there is much room for improvement in what I did. But what really struck me is how much that culture shift really makes a difference. On another occasion, the class clown decided to 'make a funny' when called upon, most likely because he had not prepped a response. Rather than it being a case of him being picked on and using him as an example of poor behaviour, the tone in the room was very much a 'you let the team down'. I didn;t even acknowledge the absurd attempt at a joke and moved right on, but you could tell that the class didn't have the appetite for it. I fully envisage this not being the case when I have them on a Friday, or last lesson, or when something happens at lunch etc. This is not a sure fire behavioural win, and it's not designed to be. These fledgling humans are unpredictable and they are wonderful for it. My takeaway from this is that what underpins all of these strategies that TLAC and RR promote is the culture. That doesn't happen overnight and it is hard to maintain. But my word is it important. The aim of cold calling is to engage and differentiate through questioning to check understanding. What I have found is that also paves the way for students to become reflective learners and respectful of each other at an academic level. And when it works, it's genuinely spine tingling.

4. Next Steps

My Y8 class were a good starting point, and I am making strides with my Y7s. I am still finding it a challenge with KS4 and KS5, but I have found that a clear tone shift through my language has helped with anxious sixth formers. I want to keep working on this, but also ensure I embed the practice heavily in Y7 and Y8 so that, as they go up the school, cold calling is the norm and seen as a benefical exercise rather than heart attack- inducing torture. I also want to work on developing my questioning variety further, and observing more experienced practioners like my HoF to see how it works in other class dynamics and to really push the top end. I think for something like cold calling, observstion is really useful because you can see a real range of scenarios and how they are dealt with in the moment by different practitioners with different teaching styles. I hope to further build confidence in my Y8s, as well as develop my questioning repertoire with other classes.

5. The Takeaway

• Students need to see cold calling as a constructive, collaborative task, not a judgement of engagement (even though it might be for you).
• The classroom culture is always key. This takes time, but is worth it.
• The language we use as teachers is so important. Phrasing our feedback and interactions in the right way helps to elicit the maximum from students.
• Cold calling, despite my initial cynicism, isn't too bad. It can actually be transformative.

But I'm still hanging up if you ask me about a recent accident. Not sorry.