Cold Call, Relationship, & The Virtual Classroom

You ever call on scholars in class and hear crickets. Especially, in the virtual remote learning world, you call on a scholar and say unmute and share and get no response. Stressed by the awkward silence we either launch into a punitive speech about a lack of participation and classwork grades or we feel the need to do it ourselves and quickly move on. 

The reason why this popular engagement strategy falls flat in some classrooms is that the cold call or hot call strategy, as it is sometimes referred to, will not work if you have no relationship. Let me say that again for the folks in the peanut gallery. The COLD CALL strategy WILL NOT WORK If you have no relationship with scholars. 

What Is Cold Call?

So I guess, first let me explain what Cold Call is for those of us who may not be familiar, although I am sure that if you work in education, you are familiar with the strategy you might just call it something else. But the term comes from Doug Lemov’s, Taxonomy, outlined in the book: Teach Like A Champion. Cold Call is an engagement strategy where the teacher will call on scholars to answer a question in class whether or not they raised their hand. It is a means to hold students accountable for answering oral questions the teacher poses, which requires students to think and interact with the question at hand, even if they’re not sure of the answer.

To Work or Not to Work!

So why does Cold Call work sometimes and not others because Cold Call depending on the relationship that the teacher has with a scholar can feel like a gotcha’! What’s the thought process here:  I’m calling on you because I want to see if you’re paying attention, I’m cold calling you because I can see that you are off task. The use of cold calls can very quickly become an exercise in Power instead of Purpose! (Power over Purpose blog post coming soon), but back to the topic at hand. It can very quickly become punitive. When the teacher and the scholar have a relationship grounded in mutual respect and trust, then Cold Call feels more like, I’m passionate about this content and I want to hear your thoughts about it. Or let’s engage in this cool discussion as a class. 

In my experiences as an educator. Cold Call is one of the most overused teaching strategies in our teacher toolkits, and it is overused because it feels safe and easy. It’s easy to just call on students vs. request volunteers for fear that no one will chime in (truly deluded thought because you can still call on a scholar and they do not respond). It’s safe because the misconception is that I don’t have to think strategically about its use, I just call a name. Well, all of these thoughts are far from the truth. Cold Call is quite an unsafe and unreliable strategy and to effectively wield it, a teacher must be grounded in its purpose and have a mutually respectful relationship with scholars. 

In the virtual space, cold calling without a relationship can be grueling. When you call on a scholar and say unmute and share and hear nothing but crickets! The silence, even for just 30 sec. can feel like a lifetime. As the silence wades through the air, there’s an incessant stream of worry thoughts that go through your mind, like…. Is the scholar purposefully not responding, have they walked away from their Chromebook, have they lost internet connection, or is their internet connection unstable and so the unmute and video features are not working. 

As a result, the power of relationship becomes even more critical, because we never want to be in a place where we are assuming the worst, and as educators, we make several split-second decisions at a time, 15 minutes into the lesson you may be now suffering from decision fatigue because you are expending mental energy on small things that could be avoided through consistent practice. 

So, how do you wield the strategy like a pro? Here are 3 ways to show off your Cold Call prowess. 

Build Up to It

Well for starters, don’t start cold calling from the beginning. Build up to that. Instead of Cold Calling scholars, warm call them-let them know in advance that you will be calling on them for a specific question, Pre-plug scholar names onto the PowerPoint slides for the day so that when they see their names, they participate accordingly, Positively frame the use of Cold Call-Explain to scholars that you will be using Cold Call to discuss the day’s topics. Engaging with scholars in this way allows them to get to know you and get a feel for the class. It allows you to create a mutually respectful classroom environment and scholars become more comfortable with taking risks. 

Set Clear Expectations

Be clear about what solid class participation looks like and sounds like. As well as how to troubleshoot for common challenges, and then be clear about what happens when you don’t participate accordingly. In being clear: provide a rubric for the various ways that scholars can receive participation points, and display it at the start of every class. Have scholars set goals for the various ways they would like to show up in class and the no. of participation points they are striving to receive for that day. Clear expectations build trust. When scholars know what’s happening and going on in class they feel safe. 

Routine & Consistency

When you set and establish a clear routine that is followed diligently each class, scholars know what to expect and eventually, the routine becomes a habit. Once it becomes a habit, scholars are humming along exactly the way you would like to see scholars participate in class without you reminding them all the time. This also allows you to get to know and build relationships grounded in trust because the class is safe and predictable. It also helps you to develop scholar’s leadership skills, as they can eventually take on roles that they have practiced over and over with your guidance. Over time scholars become the leaders of the class, they become the captain and stewards of their learning and you become the facilitator. 

In Conclusion, there’s no strategy in our teacher toolkits, whether it be Cold Call, Right is Right, No Opt Out, or the occasional candy bribe (JUST KIDDING on the candy) that will work if we don’t build authentic relationships with the children we serve. Children need to feel seen, heard, and valued in order for them to develop the intrinsic motivation required to take their learning to the next level and to be willing to happily engage with us in the classroom!