I once observed a teacher leading a large class of students. I could tell she didn’t have much experience teaching for a number of reasons, but one of the most obvious was that she kept getting derailed. A lot. She would be mid-sentence when a kid would suddenly shoot their hand in the air. It caught her off-guard with the urgency of a text message, and she took the bait every time. Even if she was working toward a main point, she allowed the hand to slice her words mid-sentence as she responded, “–Yes?”
The urgent hand waving in the air won her attention, and eventually, everyone else’s. After a series of similar interruptions, she soon lost the interest of all of the students and spent the rest of the lesson struggling to get it back (unsuccessfully). It was a disaster.
While there are a number of things that could have been improved, one simple thing would be to stay on track. Don’t get derailed, and sometimes, that means not answering their questions. Take this scenario, for example:
You’re teaching the group a lesson on the meaning of Christmas when one kid shoots his hand in the air. Oooh! A question! He must be really engaged! You pause mid-sentence and quickly take his question.
“When are we going to have skit practice?” he asks, completely off topic.
“Uh… I don’t know, you’ll have to ask the other teacher,” you respond. Then you try to reorient yourself in your lesson, “So back to the lesson… first the–yes?”
Same kid with his hand in the air. Again, you’ve just allowed yourself to be interrupted.
“Do we have to bring our costumes?”
“I don’t know. Don’t ask me, I’m–”
“WHEN IS WINTER BREAK?” calls out another child, blatantly interrupting.
“–Because I don’t know where my costume is,” continues the first child, “so my mom wants to know can we get another one?”
Even as these two children converse with you, the other kids start breaking out into their own little conversations. It’s not long before you have lost everyone’s attention and are desperately trying to regain control.
“HEY stop interrupting! Quiet down! Or else…” you start, flustered.
And now you’re in damage control mode. What had started off as a simple, focused lesson derailed into an off-topic conversation where most of the class lost interest and you lost their prime focus.
Perhaps the scenario above seems like something you would never fall prey to. Sure. But a lot of times, the derailments come in the form of genuine curiosity. Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t take questions. There are many, many times when you should! Authentic learning that stems from children’s curiosity can be some of the most powerful learning that takes place. As long as you are aware and are consciously making the decision to allow the conversation to meander off the planbook in favor of indulging their interests, have at it! I love taking advantage of those teachable moments.
That’s not what I’m talking about in this post, though. I’m talking about the off-topic, random questions that you answer, before reminding the class to get back on topic. And that’s where the problem is: you answered it. No matter how many times you try to tell the class to get back on track, every time you answer an irrelevant question, you are offering positive reinforcement for students to get off-topic.
They raised their hands– shouldn’t I call on them?
A kid raising their hand in the air can feel a bit like a text message: Even though you’re usually in the middle of something, it feels urgent and you often allow it to interrupt.
The whole point of raising hands is so that a child does NOT interrupt, yet it’s a rookie mistake to call on every hand in the air, and to do it right away. Not only is that not necessary, but you often gain very little and have a lot to lose. What do you lose? Your train of thought. Your momentum. The class’s attention. And all that for a question that could have waited a minute or two more. It’s usually not worth it.
It’s not an easy thing to do, especially as a new teacher. I get it. When kids raise their hands, it’s usually a sign of engagement. You want to encourage that engagement, encourage the questions, and encourage their thinking. Those are all good goals! However, you need to maintain control of the classroom. If you see that a child has a burning question, but you also need to get through a lesson quickly, simply note, “I am so glad you are engaged, and I can’t wait to hear your question, but please hang onto it until I’m done.”
I train my students to consider my body language and consider what I’m doing before deciding to raise their hands. If they’ve had their hand up for a while while I’m mid-lecture, I’ll sometimes find a moment to quietly remind them, “Read my body language. Does it look like I’m going to call on you anytime soon?”
When I finish my spiel, the student almost always remembers what their question was and asks it afterward, which is a much more appropriate time than mid-instruction. This is good for the flow of the lesson, and also good for the student. Putting their hands down also helps them to pay attention better during the lesson rather than spend that time focusing only on their own words, and not mine.
Too late. I called on her. Now what do I do?
If you do call on a student and find that their question is totally off-topic, don’t encourage it by answering the question. Simply tell them, “That is irrelevant, you can ask me again later.” Otherwise you giving everyone the message that they can be thinking off topic and changing topics and you’re okay with it. I often see teachers continue to take random, irrelevant questions and then wonder why the class is getting off topic or out of hand. This is why.
In teaching school, they emphasized that most mini-lessons should be between 10-20 minutes. That’s when you have their “best” attention, so you should make the most of it! Don’t spend 5 minutes straying off topic, then trying to get back on again. Know your objective, move forward with it, and only take questions if you’re ready and willing to get side-tracked a bit. Always be intentional about pulling the class back on track. This is especially true if you can already see that the other students are fading and losing interest. In this case, you should end the lesson as quickly as you can and take individual questions privately afterward.
It is an odd thing to choose to ignore a child’s raised hand and keep talking, but eventually they learn to consider the timing of their raised hands, and they find better times to ask their questions.
I never knew I had so much to say about hand-raising, but it’s such an everyday thing in a classroom that it deserves some special attention. I hope these thoughts have helped you be more thoughtful in your own teaching!
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Related Posts:
How Raising Hands Makes Kids Smarter
7 responses to “Don’t Answer the Question”
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Have you actually been in my classroom all the time without my noticing?? Your posts are SO helpful !! I can’t wait to try that !
I’m sorry there’s only so much you can tell me (us), and I have to do the doing, and learn to apply such things consistently …
Thanks!!
Hahah aw shucks… you are too kind! I appreciate that even though you’ve already been teaching, you are always willing to try new ideas! I think that’s a common characteristic of the best teachers I know. Lifelong learners breed lifelong learners! Keep it up, Florence!
I’ve only been teaching for 2 years now though, so I still feel like a total noob that does a poor job of the whole teaching thing… I’ll see if my inspector concurs when she gives me my “grade”!
Otherwise, about not answering questions, I think I’m getting better at not calling on the raised hands, but I reeeeeeally need to tame my body language! I can just feel myself giving the student permission to speak, just with my eyes, even as I clamp my mouth not to! Aaargh!!
No worries! You’ll get the hang of it soon! Hope you get a good “grade” :).
What great advice! Especially for new teachers. I was a teacher before I took a hiatus to stay home with my young children, and this definitely makes a lot of sense. Questions are great…until they are completely off-topic! 🙂
~Julia
As a very experienced teacher I STILL fall into this trap!!! I’ll take your advice for sure!! 😀
Hope you find it effective on staying on topic! 🙂