Stop and Process

Stop and Process: Purpose

How often do we as teachers ask a question in class and get the same students raising their hands again and again?

How does it make a student feel when we call on them when they DON'T have their hand raised?

What are the reasons behind a student who does not raise their hand often? Fear of being wrong, self-consciousness, not hearing the question in the first place... or are they just waiting us out until we give in and call on the student who's hand is already raised? Does the way we ask questions unintentionally create a "gotcha" culture and/or does it actually reinforce students lack of accountability?

Think about it, when we ask a question to the class as a whole (or even in a small group), how many of the students are truly considering an answer? How do we know?

If we choose our questions wisely, then the question should be important enough to be considered by all students. If we set the expectation that all students are responsible for being engaged in responding to a question, then we need to provide a structure to safely hold students accountable without unintentionally creating a "gotcha" culture.

FUNCTION:

• Stop and Process cards have two sides. One side reflects "I'm still thinking", and the other signifies "I'm ready to give an answer".
• Have each student randomly choose a card (cards can have a home in a caddy in the middle of the table or you can distribute them, but it is better if they are readily available so that they can be used spontaneously or as the opportunity arises)
• Invite all students flip their card to the "still thinking" side
• Ask the class a question or give students something to consider
• Provide process time for the students to think of a response. Once students believe they have a response, they should flip their card to the "Ready to share" side.
• When many of the students have their cards flipped, and some don't, invite the students who's card is still on "I'm thinking" to turn and talk to someone who has their card flipped to "I'm ready" in order to gain some insight or get some help with formulating an answer or response. Once they have had this quick conversation, they should flip their card to "I'm ready" as well. (This will take some time, especially as you are building the routine and the culture, but I promise it is worth it!)
• Once all students have flipped their cards to "I'm ready", randomly choose a letter to provide and answer or a response. (See below for adding letters to cards) At this point, it should not matter who is chosen, because all students have processed their response and will be able to share. Repeat random letter calling as you see fit. Continue this process as you conduct your lesson.
• The empty boxes on the one side serve various purposes
  • one box can have one of each of the letters of the alphabet. The purpose of this would be so that each student would be represented by a letter. When it is time to call on a student, the teacher can randomly select a letter (random letter app or other method) to call on a student. This reinforces that any student can be called on.
  • the second box can be used for spontaneous random grouping. Perhaps you want to put the numbers 1-4 on each of the cards (for example, if you have 24 students, 6 cards would have #1, 6 cards would have #2, etc.) The purpose of this would be if you wanted to group students quickly, all of the 1's would get together, etc