No Hands

The temptation in class is to go with the learner that puts their hand up first and get them to answer a question.  This is okay sometimes but it often leaves EAL learners that are New to English out. So, instead of making them feel left out why not try no hands?

Here is how it could work:

Write the name of all of your learners on lollipop sticks or something similar and put them in a cup.  After asking a question to the whole class randomly pick a name from the cup and they answer.

For New to English EAL learners you could try these things:

• After asking the class a question you could wait 10 seconds or more for learners to think of an answer.  This is good practice especially for EAL learners because there are many positives that come out of giving more wait time.
• Use a strategy such as think, pair, share before selecting a lollipop stick from the cup.
• If they are finding it difficult to answer a question then say that you will ask another questiont to someone else while they ask someone on their table to help them with the answer.
• Provide them with sentence frames that help them to formulate an answer.