I have tried some new things in my classes the last few months that seem to work. Every now and then you will still get, "I don't know," or a shoulder shrug but the majority of students enjoyed them
- Get red, yellow, and green paper or plastic cups: enough for each student to have a set. Throughout the lesson, I would say, "Cup check!" The students would show me the red if they weren't understanding, yellow if they were unsure or starting to catch on, and green if they felt they understood the concept. I would start responding to the red cups first then the yellow by asking them a few leading questions on where they felt they got lost. As I was doing that, I saw both red and yellow cups change to the next level.
- Use a deck or two of playing cards and have students pick 1 or 2 cards (making sure they were different values). Keep a suite for yourself and include the jokers for wild cards. Ask a question, pause, pick a card from your deck: let's say you picked a 4. All students with a 4 are on the hook to answer the question. A joker means the question is open for all students.
I hope this works for you, too.
