You didn't call on me
(Seminar interaction)

I was using index cards to call upon teachers for their opinion about something and had called upon 12 to 15 of them. At that point, I offered a word of thanks for all of the responses and then proceeded to set the cards down. As soon as I put down the cards--an obvious signal that I wasn't going to be calling upon anyone else, I saw a teacher in the back of the room throw up his hands in mock disgust. His exclamation of, "Oh, man!" showed me that he had an opinion he had wanted to share but wasn't called upon to do so.

Turning his direction, I said, "I'm sorry. Did you want to say something?"

He told me he did but didn't want to interrupt. (What a good guy. Playing by the rules and exercising self-control.) I then proceeded to tell everyone the strategy I use for just these kinds of situations.

Rick
Addressing the group:
I don't always use the cards to call upon students. That would not only be too restrictive, it would hinder students from developing the oh-so-important skill of raising a hand so that they can voluntarily share a thought. Raising a hand in order to: 1) join a discussion; or 2) respond to teacher prompts during a lesson is something every student needs to be able to do in order to get the best education possible. Unfortunately, if the teacher only calls upon volunteers, the predictable outcome is that the overachievers will dominate the discussion and the underachievers will check out. That's definitely not a good thing.

Hmmm. Sounds like a problem in need of a solution.

Rick
Continuing the thread:
The method I used to balance these two needs--making sure everyone is staying with the lesson while at the same time encouraging students to become independent responders--was to take volunteer responses. I did this by putting the deck behind my back and then forming a V with my other hand. This sign lets my students know that I'm not using the cards at the moment but, instead, would like to have anyone who wished to volunteer a thought to raise a similar V hand to indicate that.

I would then call upon several volunteers before getting back to using the deck. All in all, it was a simple strategy that allowed many of my overachievers to increase their level of participation.

When I had finished this explanation, I again turned toward the teacher in the back of the room, lowered the deck of cards, and held up the V sign. He immediately raised his own V hand. I then called upon him so that he was able to share his original thought.

Let's call that a Win-Win.

How long do you use a marked deck?
(Question asked during seminar)

Teacher: "When you are using a set of index cards for calling upon students and you're marking scores on the cards based upon the quality of their responses, how long do you use the set before you make a new set?"

Well, that kind of depends.

How often do you use the cards?
How many times during a class do you go through the entire deck?
How large is your writing? (Big marks = less room to record marks)
What is the rate of student turn-over in your room?

Generally speaking, I like to start a new deck every three or four weeks. (That's by no means a hard-and-fast rule. It's just a guideline.) The biggest advantage of starting a new deck is that any students who got off to a slow start and have cards with a majority of low marks are able to walk away from those marks and make a new start. This kind of "fresh start" thinking is really conducive to growth and development.

When I'm ready to start a new deck, I give the old one to a student along with a grade sheet. The student, with another student helping out if desired, goes through each card and counts all of the pluses shown. This score is written on the card in pen and the number is entered in the plus column on the grade sheet. The same thing is done for checks, minuses, and zeroes.

Bonus: The now-recorded cards are given to the students to spend in our student store. They can purchase snacks or privileges with the points they earned. Pluses are worth 3 points, checks are worth 2 points, and each minus is worth a point.

He's got the cards
(Seminar interaction)

For some reason--and there's always a reason--Class Card issues seem to be the dominant theme for this week's entries. I'm thinking it might be due to the fact that, although the idea is not a completely new idea--think: popsicle sticks with the names of students written on each one--most teachers have never used the strategy to the degree I do. I use them constantly. It's one of the best ways to make sure students are truly attending to the lesson or discussion at hand.

Anyway, I had just asked the group to share what they thought might be additional student needs. (They already had power, fun, and freedom written down.) And although I had picked up my set of index cards and tapped them loudly against the table top as an indication that I was about to call upon teachers randomly, two of the teachers in the group raised a hand to respond to my question.

I stretched out my arm and showed everyone the set of cards in my hand.

I've done this for years in the classroom to show my students that I'm not going to call on anyone with a hand up. I want to use the cards for determining who is called upon. It was kind of funny how instinctive the move was. I've rarely done it during twenty-plus years of conducting seminars. However, now that I've started to use the Class Cards during a presentation and not just demonstrate their use at the conclusion of the day, I've become aware of how much similarity there is between my classroom experience and the seminar experience. As soon as I saw hands raised, I held out the cards. Instinct at work.

Well, I knew what I meant by the display of cards. They didn't. So I explained.

Rick
Addressing the group:
When you first start using a set of cards in your classroom, you're going to see students raising a hand up to respond the question you just asked. This should not be too surprising. They've been doing this 'raise a hand to show that you'd like to be called upon' routine for as long as they've been students. It's a conditioned response that has been internalized from years of practice.

If, however, you want to use the cards to randomly distribute response opportunities, they need to know that. The easiest way to indicate your intent is to just hold out your hand with the cards and show the class. As I do this, I usually say, 'He's got the cards.' Within a day or two, students will say, "He's got the cards," for me so that I don't have to. Within a week or two, no one will have to say a thing. They'll all understand what I mean when I hold out the cards for everyone to see.

Lo and behold, the same thing happened with the teachers in the group as the day progressed. I held out the cards--with a smile on my face--in response to a raised hand. I would then see the hand lowered and the teacher acknowledge that the message had been received.

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