Spot Questions

Jimmy, in your discussion post you brought up a good point - calculating the answer on the spot. I think that some students have difficulty with this simply because they are shy, may not be good with being put on the spot, or just may not be a student, who thinks quickly on their toes. I use to be this type of student in school. If I was called on in Math class, I always had a hard time answering the questions that my teacher would call on me for. This was partially because I was not good at math and secondly because I was generally always a step or two behind, due to trying to practice and learn the concepts that were being taught. As a teacher, I do not plan to use this strategy a lot, because I know that it is not a very effective strategy to use and that it may cause some students discomfort, which will …show more content…
As teachers, we must steer away from the teaching strategy of calling on students to discipline them, because they are not paying attention in class, while instruction is going on. Instead, we must remove them from their area of disruption and place them in an area, where they can be the center of learning instruction. Then, they will see that what you are trying to teach the class is important and can be useful, which means that they need to try to learn it.

When subbing in Math classes, instead of calling on students to shout out an answer to the class, I have the students to go up to the whiteboard and show the class how they worked out their problems rather than verbally explain how they got the answer(s) that they did. I do this because Math was my least favorite subject and I have found that even the students that do not want to be called on to go up to the board, enjoy having the opportunity to not only write on the whiteboard, but also having the privilege to teach the