I Am Drawing Names

On Thursday, June 23rd, I taught my final lesson for the summer session- How to find the Volume of a 3-dimensional object. For this lesson I used the Qualters technique Cold Calling. Before starting my lesson, I had all the students write their names down on pieces of 3 x 5 paper I had cut up. I told them that during the lesson today I would select a name from the pile randomly and that person would have to answer the particular question that I asked at that time. At first they moaned and said, “No Miss Foster I am not going to be ready for that,” or “Is the lesson going to be hard, ‘cause if it is hard I can’t answer the question.” So of course I stated what I always say, “I am not going to give you anything that you haven’t already had.” And so I went on to do my Set- the students made a 3-dimensional cube from an outline I gave them and then they had to find the volume of it. I gave them the formula and they all found the volume. I picked a random name out of the cards and asked that student (Devontae) to tell me what they got for volume and how they found it? They answered the question and so as I used the method the rest of the class time, I heard no complaints. I have a pretty decent class and they are always willing to try new things. The Cold Calling technique worked out to be pretty useful in that I just wasn’t calling on a student because I knew they would or would not know the answer of a specific question, rather I was calling on a student at random, which made all the students stay on their P’s & Q’s. I liked this technique and I will use it during the school year.