Technique 26: Everybody Writes

(Part of Chapter 4: Engaging Students in Your Lessons)

The author tells a story which resonates strongly with me: in a classroom, the teacher is presenting a short story, and then asks the students a demanding question -- a question that really requires the students to think deeply.  This is a perfect teaching behavior -- stretching the students to understand, apply, and extend the information they've received.  The response from the classroom: a deafening silence and averted eyes.

This is exactly what I get most days in the classroom, and it drives me nuts!  The author suggests giving the students time to think and then write down their answers, and then be ready to discuss their answers.

The idea is that better, more insightful answers often require time -- not everyone can come up with a great answer immediately.  Also, if you take the first answer, you don't allow the other students to struggle with the problem themselves.  The author gives a few other reasons why having students write down answers is a good idea, but the best reason, in my opinion, is "Students remember twice as much of what they are learning if they write it down."

My response:

I like this idea a lot.  When I am teaching Intro to Programming classes, and I do Questions and Answers on the assigned reading (ask me if you want to know more about this), the students do get a chance to write their answers -- and they get a chance to think about their answers.

I wonder if I couldn't also give the students a few harder problems to solve (i.e., code snippets to write) before they get to class (but after having read the assigned section in the text).