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Your Secret Weapon Wait Time - TeacherVision

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Your Secret Weapon: Wait Time
Asking students for quick answers is a bad idea. Here's why.
You ask a lot of questions in class - and probably get frustrated by the poorly-thought-out answers you receive.
Here's an idea: Give your students time to think about your questions before asking for an answer. This is called
"wait time," and it dramatically improves the length, diversity, and quality of the answers your students will give to
the questions you ask. Read on for more ways to use this go-to teaching strategy for nearly any type of in-class
inquiry.
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Updated: June 9, 2019
Your Secret Weapon: Wait Time
Listen in on many classrooms at all levels, and you'll probably hear teachers asking question after question. With
so many questions coming at them, students have little time to think. Looking at it another way: the more
questions that are asked, the less thinking occurs. Classroom observations reveal that teachers typically wait less
than 1 second for students to respond to a question. Teachers often conclude that students don't know the
answer to a question if they don't respond quickly. And when they do respond, they usually use knowledge-level
responses.
Classroom observations also reveal that if a student manages to get a response in, most teachers tend to ask
another question within an average time span of 9⁄10 of a second!
A Most Interesting Solution
Is this a problem? Yes! But here's an interesting solution: increase the time between asking a question and having
students respond to that question from the typical 1 second to 5 seconds. This is known as wait time. Believe it or
not, this simple act produces significant and profound changes in the classroom, including:
The length of student responses increases 400 to 800 percent.
The number of unsolicited but appropriate responses increases.
Failure to respond decreases.
Student confidence increases.
Students ask more questions.
Student achievement increases significantly.
Here's a tip: when you ask a question, don't preface it with a student's name, for
example, “Marsha, what are some of the reasons why Leonardo da Vinci is
considered a genius?” As soon as you say one student's name, all the other brains in
the room immediately shut down. Often, the other students will be saying to
themselves, We don't have to think now because Marsha is going to answer the
question.
Instead, ask the question, wait, and then ask for a response. Interestingly, you'll
discover a heightened level of involvement. Everyone has to think about a response
because nobody knows who will be called on to respond. And, the responses you
receive will be considerably better and there will be more group thinking.
Jabberwocky
Wait time is the period of
silence between the time a
question is asked and the
time when one or more
students respond to that
question.
Like Good Coffee, You Need Percolation Time
Wait time provides students time to percolate a question down through their brain cells and create an appropriate
response. After you ask a question, let it percolate in students' heads for a while. And after a student responds, let
the response percolate as well. Believe me, you'll wind up with a much better brew in your classroom.
Adding wait time to your teaching repertoire will, perhaps more than any other teaching strategy, have the
greatest impact on student performance. However, it's only fair to tell you that it looks simpler than it is. It may be
for you, as it has always been for me, one of the greatest teaching challenges you will ever face simply because
teachers are uncomfortable with classroom silence. We tend to abhor it, often believing that learning can't really
be going on in a quiet classroom. But with practice, you'll begin to see the incredible benefits of wait time!
Excerpted from
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Success as a Teacher
Anthony D. Fredericks, Ed.D.
Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Success as a Teacher © 2005 by Anthony D. Fredericks. All rights
reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books,
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
To order this book visit Amazon's web site or call 1-800-253-6476.
Buy This Book
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