Trouble when asking the class questions - the child who always knows the answer

                Here’s the trouble. No matter what question you ask the class, hoping to get maximum participation, one child has his hand up immediately. You know he knows the answer, but does he have to show off to the world every blessed day? You try ignoring him, but that just makes him try harder to get your attention until it becomes disruptive to the class.

                You aren’t alone. This is a scenario that has played itself out in every classroom, in every subject and at every age. The trouble isn’t that the child doesn’t know the answer, it’s that he does. When he gives the correct answer right off the bat the chance of your finding the misconceptions held by other students in the class is now nil. Basically, that immediate right answer shuts off class discussion.

                Also you are tired of constantly having to call on that one student when you know others in the class need to participate as well. And there are days you just don’t want to call his name one more time.

                So how do you stop this annoyance without hurting the child’s feelings and having to deal with an angry parent, also?

                What is it exactly that you want from the class? I can already hear your answer: maximum class participation.

                It took me years, but I finally found the solution to this particular classroom trouble. The key is patience and wait time. Here’s how it looks.

                I ask a question of the class. The same hand as always goes up. I wait. If no more hands show, I say: ‘I’m waiting for five hands to be up.’ And then I wait.

                When more hands come up I start to count: ‘I’ve got four hands up now. I still need one more.’

                Finally the fifth hand is raised. I start calling on students. I make it a point to ask every student whose hand was up to respond. Sometimes I call on them in reverse order, sometimes in the order the hands were raised, sometimes it’s purely random.

                When I start with the last hand first, it is not unusual to get this response: ‘I don’t know, I just raised my hand so you’d call on someone.’ If that happens to you, I suggest you thank the individual for being civic minded.

                Of course several of the students will have the same answer. Sometimes I ask as I call on a student: ‘Do you agree with what Mary said?’ Or I may say, ‘Do you have anything to add to what Johnny said?’

                At times, such as when we are doing a review, I feel that every student in class should know the answer. Then I require more hands to be raised before I start calling on students.

                This technique saves me the trouble of trying to avoid the know-it-all student and also maximizes class participation. Besides, students enjoy the challenge of getting so many hands up in the air. It can become such a game with them they try to force a neighbor’s hand up!