Wait Time is a simple, yet powerful strategy. Rowe (1974) found that simply waiting after questions or student responses dramatically affected student thinking, conversation, and achievement. She advised moving from one second (the average time a teacher waits) to up to five seconds.

While it is important to wait after student questions (even when it feels hard), it is even more important to wait after student responses. By waiting after student responses, we can encourage student-student interaction, and this type of interaction encourages true discussion.

The graphic above includes takeaways from Rowe's research and tips for implementing this strategy with multilingual learners.

Row, M. B. (1974). Wait-time and rewards as instructional variables, their influence on language, logic, and fate control: Part one-wait-time. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 11(2), 81–94. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.3660110202