This technique asks students to make a judgment about the correctness of an answer given by another student. It is a technique for keeping students more engaged, even when only one student has been asked to give an answer for a problem. It is a way to increase your Ratio.
You can ask an individual student if he/she agrees with the answer, or you can ask the whole class. This second option can be done effectively by asking the students to raise their hands and put up 1 finger if they agree, or 2 if they disagree (or thumbs up, thumbs down).
Take a Stand keeps all students involved even when a question is directed toward a single student -- they suspect that they will be asked to agree or disagree with the answer. If they get their response wrong, they may be asked to justify their position. It allows a teacher to effectively ask all questions to all students every time.
Important things to remember:
- follow up on students' answers, so that if students respond wrong, they can learn why their answer is wrong.
- use the technique often, so that students learn to pay attention all the time.
- ask students to Take a Stand both when the original answer is correct or incorrect
- when a small group of students disagrees with the rest of the class, acknowledge their courage.
My response:
I have used this technique pretty effectively in recent semesters. It works, IMO. One thing to remember is to not allow students to take no stand. For example, sometimes I ask students to nod if they agree or shake their head if they disagree. The result is that some students do neither. It is better to have them all raise their hands to give a thumbs up/down, so that they have to take a stand.
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