Generally, when a class of students solves a problem they produce a range of answers. Some students may have the ‘right’ answer, others will have answers that reflect typical errors, and one or two students may have answers that are surprising.

Teachers should collect all the different answers and write them on the board BEFORE calling on students to explain how they got particular answers. Each different answer is only written one time, no matter how many students got that answer.

This practice has many benefits:

• It acknowledges many students in a short period of time yet does not give away the correct answer.
• It demonstrates teacher curiosity about multiple students’ thinking, and normalizes confusion or disagreement.
• It provides students with a genuine purpose for explaining their strategy or reasoning to classmates – to convince others that their answer is correct. 
• It gives the teacher more control over when and how to engage students in discussing incorrect solutions.  It is important to call on students with correct and incorrect answers to explain their reasoning. However, it is usually most valuable for the class as a whole to explore incorrect answers that are close to the correct answer or common mistakes. 
• It provides teachers with important formative assessment information about the range of answers, which can inform decisions about how much time to spend discussing that problem. If everyone got the same answer, you might not even need to discuss that problem, thus saving time and not boring students.
• Finally, it provides opportunities to regularly discuss revising one’s answer. Are you convinced by ________’s explanation? Would anyone like to revise their answer? Why? What convinced you? 

Metamorphosis Coach Sarah Ryan

Secrets to Engaging Every Student
Every Day In Math Class

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