More tips from Sammy Kempner
Video transcript
okay tip number four please this is this is really stopping this one uh question don’t tell oh intriguing question don’t tell okay tell me more um so again like this we we’ve had some side disagreement not disagreeing but i think the way the different um departments in our school do this is different and uh like i know adam adam is the king of modeling and like the way that he models is ridiculous but in maths we try always even when we’re modeling from the front to model through questioning um because i think the idea is and adam’s been by doing some cpd at our school like talking about how to you go from familiar to unfamiliar or maybe concrete to abstract or whatever it may be but the familiar to unfamiliar um fade if you want is that that’s how math teaching works you take some prior knowledge that is needed that they should know make sure they’ve got it and then you add a little bit to it based on logic and so if you do that well then you can do it through questioning because it’s only building on stuff that they’ve already known like there are exceptions like when i’m first teaching algebraic proportion to on a year 10 class or something um i i think it’s just quite helpful to say this is um general formula specific formula you model like direct portion like this and the inverse portion because it’s all just a bit of a leap it’s just better just to say like this is what’s going on but as a general rule if you’re teaching something for the first time um i’m modeling from the front question then don’t tell um when you’re helping a child one-to-one um like question always try like if you if you tell them you’ve got no idea if they’ve understood when they’re when students are working in groups um try and get them to question each other rather than telling each other and i think the best way that i can like demonstrate why this is so important is everyone has had it where you’re you’ve explained something you’ve explained it really well and to someone who’s not understood before and you’re explaining explanation and you reach a point where that person you’re explaining to goes oh yeah all right and until i started teaching i just i just assumed that meant they understood but it turns out it’s not true like people make that noise all the time because it’s become so like it’s become socially awkward for them to go along without understanding it and like honestly like i’m asking i ask kids all the time you say and they they go oh yeah you go oh right i’ve got i’ve got to stop there because you’ve just made that noise which means that you think you understand or you like want to communicate you understand but yeah it’s amazing it’s amazing how often they still don’t understand and that comes about because you’ve told them rather than question them because when you’re telling someone something they like right now it could be happening you could just be zoning off right now i’ve got no idea i’m not asking any questions i’m just talking and so yeah like it’s it once i don’t know i i i i find i do that all the time as soon as something is not immediately interesting um there’s a chance there’s a danger that i’m my mind might wander a little bit and i have to bring myself back and i tried to be self-disciplined about it so hopefully i don’t miss out on too much but you know like if you’re season with children who aren’t very self-disciplined then there’s no chance that they’re going to bring themselves back even if they’re looking you in the eye and even if your explanation is amazing which is why um in our department we try to question always god it’s fascinating to sammy so i can i can certainly see it well i don’t i don’t do it enough but i can certainly see how this is 100 a good idea if you if you’re kind of working one-to-one with a child and you’re trying to get help them through something you want to get a sense of where where the kind of gap is in their knowledge where it’s going wrong so you build up and so on the modeling is the thing that intrigues me here now i’m interested with the kind of big leap things that that certainly seems to me the place where yeah you want the kind of crystal clear explanation and so on because it’s too big a jump and it’s going to take too long for the kids to get there potentially misconceptions bombing around left right and centre and so on can you give me an example of a of an idea a new idea where you could get all the way with with questioning or you know most of the way yeah so um let’s say you’re teaching dividing fractions oh good one for the first time so you start off by saying like i’ve got eight pieces of chocolate here and if i have half of them half of those pieces of chocolate how many do i have when you say like we’ve got four you see your question this is a question how many chocolate pizza yeah and so you then say all right so if i write down it down half of eight equals four and uh what’s another way of saying that how can like if i if i if i divided the chocolate into piles like what would i have divided by divided eight by to make my four divided by two okay so dividing by two and we get four so let’s look at these next to each other and i said i’ve written down a half of eight looks like that and we’ve taught them already though all the math means times okay so i’ve got half times eight and so uh and when you’re multiplying things does it matter what do you multiply them in no okay so if i write eight times a half that’s the same as a half times eight yeah okay so eight times a half is the same as eight divided by what two and two is the same as two over one and so what do you notice about dividing a by something and times eight by something what’s the relationship here well dividing by some fraction is the same as timing by it reciprocal and so like you you’re getting them to almost fill the gaps in the [Music] reason the logic of where you where you’ve gone with it god this is interesting sammy just again on the logistics is that a lot of mini whiteboard stuff in response to those questions so this is another situation where yes many wives could do a job i think the admin of getting the whole class to you know if you’re doing anyways properly you’re covering your answers yeah when you’re ready at the same time and really the questions are so constantly there and that it’s it’s too there’s two like there’s too much for many white boards so it’s a situation where it’s good to cold call and sometimes i’ll do like a whole class like back and forth because a lot of those questions the whole class could have said and if i’m and it it keeps them engaged i think it like it holds their attention and it holds into account for for being involved and listening to your model whereas if you don’t do that if you and if you don’t sometimes just stop and i look at them expectedly like yeah that’s the next thing i’m going to say were you really following what because if you were following what i was saying then you should know the next thing because it’s nothing that we haven’t done before yeah all these things they it increases the likelihood they’re going to be listening this is interesting this sammy i would imagine the difference between how me and you would do this and i i i already figured having the wrong camp here straight away is i think i’d do a lot of the explaining i’d make sure i’ve got their attention so i’d have really thought through maybe even gone so far as to script or rehearse what i was going to say real crystal clear explanation at least in my head anyway and then once i’ve gone through that explanation that’s when the kind of assessment would start you know i’d imagine by the time i’ve asked my first question of the kids you’ve maybe i kind of asked five or six um possibly i got there quicker but maybe you’ve unearthed more potential problems that the kids could have and maybe your kids are more focused on it i i don’t know but i’d imagine that’s our diff our difference there maybe i so first of all like it it’s not a good assessment for learning and as we’ve talked about because if you’re only asking one key again you don’t know um but it is a good you know the party if you the the participation ratio the participation ratio is a better like i think the participation ratio will be higher yeah if they know at any point they could be involved in the model i also just want to like really make clear i’m not say like sometimes or often or even always it might be a good thing to do to do a really like a really clear model with no student involvement and then immediately start questioning with the next one and do the guided practice right fine you’re still i think that’s still at that point you’re seeking the principle of question don’t tell once you’ve done given them the knowledge they have but if they have the knowledge to answer the question then you should be asking the question i think that’s my point that’s interesting and would you if we just double back on tip number one because this is where it could really be derailed right so you’re in your truck picture the scene here sammy you’re trying to do dividing fractions you want to get to the you know get to the point where they’ve got this new idea you’re purposely asking the kids that you suspect might be getting this wrong that’s you can just imagine the kind of work for example going off the rails a little bit here are you still sticking to that principle uh yeah like again call it based on the situation your classes are teaching if you think it’s doable and if it’s prerequisite knowledge that everyone should have if your questioning is so clear yeah and the way you guided them through it is so clear that they should be able to answer it things like of in math means times and two is the same as two over one those are so they should be so fluent in that that anyone could answer it yeah then it won’t cause an obstacle but you have you do have to think really carefully but when you’re first introducing an idea um you have to be so careful with that like obviously and if there is a danger that um they’re not going to get it and you think it’s going to cause more harm than it actually like um sol like helps deal with then don’t do it but um i think the time when it’s most contentious to say question don’t tell is when you’re introducing like new information yes so i still think it can be done um in the way that i’ve described with the dividing fractions often but like let’s say let’s assume it can’t be done and you have to give one clean clear concise model and from that moment on it’s only questioning it’s really only questioning don’t do any of the heavy lifting or even the light lifting for them constantly question and one i honestly think one question done really well that takes 20 minutes actually 20 minutes where you’re you know every single person’s with you because you’ve been checking for any whiteboards and you’ve been targeting the ones you’d like you to know and you really made them explain every single part of it yeah jumping from student to student all the time like that is way more worthwhile than doing 30 questions um where you know maybe they can do it but they can’t explain why or you know god that’s interesting that’s interesting savvy