Teach like a champion 3.0: 63 techniques that put students on the path to college - Lemov Doug 2021

Technique 13: Show call
Check for understanding

Let's return to what is perhaps the crucial moment in the clip from Denarius Frazier's math class that we've been examining in the course of this chapter, Denarius Frazier: Remainder. Circulating and observing actively, Denarius recognizes that there's something his students have misunderstood about finding the remainder when dividing polynomials. He has recognized an error in real time but this is only half of the equation in Checking for Understanding. The second half, deciding how to address it, is a much more challenging question than it appears. Teachers bury the data—recognize student misunderstandings and fail to take action on them—all the time. In many cases this is because of the difficulty of changing one's lesson plan on the spur of the moment in front of thirty students. Or a failure to address the error may be due to the pressure of time. But Denarius hardly bats an eye. He chooses the work of a student, Fagan, who made a characteristic error, walks to the front of the room and projects it to the class. Seconds later the class is engaging with interest and openness in a study of the mistake, why it happened, and what it could teach them.

What's the quickest and most productive way to respond to an error in the midst of teaching, in other words? Often it's to study the error itself.

If you can pull that off, you have a simple, reliable tool to use in response to student errors. If students struggle to understand the first time, you may not have to plan a backup lesson or a new way of teaching the material if you can instead make a useful version of the error instantly visible and then build a culture that supports open study of the thinking that led to a mistake.

That's a powerful idea. If we can find and study our mistakes with openness and fascination, if we can discuss them in substantive conversations, then we have a replicable way to react to error when we see it and we are teaching a process we'd wish our students to copy for much of their lives: Find the mistake. Study it without defensiveness. Relish it as a learning opportunity.

The technique Denarius uses to accomplish this is Show Call, choosing a student's work and sharing it, visually, with the class so they are not just talking about it but studying it in a durable sustained way. An essential component of making this sustained study possible is the fact that the mistake is visible to all students. If Denarius had not projected Fagan's work to the class, the class would have learned far less from it.

This opportunity for learning is too important for Denarius to accept anything but the most productive example. Using Show Call effectively implies being able to choose deliberately whose work to project. A Show Call is therefore not just projecting work but selecting the example regardless of who's volunteered to share. Show Call is a visual Cold Call. To learn optimally from an example, students must see it well, and they need to be looking at just the right case study.

You will also probably notice that Fagan, the accomplished young woman whose work he's chosen, is not bothered when Denarius takes her paper. She doesn't look surprised, as you might expect her to have been. It's a familiar procedure, in other words, one that happens, if not daily, then regularly, and one that began with Denarius explaining to the class what he would do and why before he did it the first time. Then they practiced it—tried the idea out under controlled circumstances where success was more assured. For example, the first few times he used Show Call, Denarius probably focused on making Show-Called students feel honored by and comfortable with the process. Over time his Show Calls became more rigorous. Now he doesn't need to explain why he is taking Fagan’s or any student's paper, and students all have learned to engage in error analysis respectfully and productively.

Further, the culture Denarius has built—and which we can see him reinforcing in this clip—communicates the importance of studying mistakes and reinforces a strong sense of psychological safety for students as they do so. Ironically, students in classes like Denarius's often come to love Show Call. If they don't love it, they certainly see the value of it. In observing how Denarius approaches the technique we can learn a lot about why. It's also worth noticing that Show Call, used frequently, reinforces accountability for written work. On tomorrow's problem set, students will be strongly incented—perhaps even motivated—to do their best work. This will result in better and better examples to share with the class.

Notice Denarius's actions when he begins his Show Call and how much importance he assigns to the task of shared error analysis. He deliberately ensures full attention—notice his formal body language (technique 58, Strong Voice) and his use of a brief positive group correction, “Waiting on one” (see technique 55, Least Invasive Intervention), before commencing. He is communicating the heightened importance of the upcoming task.

As soon as he begins the process of studying a student mistake, he deliberately reinforces a few essential cultural messages. “As I walked around, on a few of our papers I'm noticing that we're getting an incorrect remainder,” he says. Immediately it's a “we” issue. He's going to show one example of what is a classwide challenge. Message: It's our work we're studying, not just that of a single Show-Called student. “We have check mechanisms in place that we can use to check this,” he says, again stressing the class’s group ownership of the problem and the solution.

Now to Fagan's work. “Snaps first to Fagan for using long division,” Denarius says. “You didn't have to use long division. You don't have to use synthetic. There's even another approach that I saw on Quinetta's paper… .” In introducing Fagan's work, the teacher first establishes that there is plenty of successful work in the classroom, even if they are going to improve something about it. Fagan's first instinct may have been to think, Oh, I got it wrong, but in fact she didn't get it all wrong. She got a small piece of it wrong and a lot of it right. She's doing fine, and he's helping her to see that.

Notice also Denarius's emotional constancy and how he treats the error as being completely normal. As I discuss in technique 12, Culture of Error, Denarius establishes that mistakes are interesting, valuable even, and definitely not something a teacher gets frustrated at learners about. This is not a culture where people are afraid to discuss a mistake. Why would they be afraid when mistakes have been established as a necessary and helpful part of the learning process and the examination of them is a completely routine part of class?

Students do most of the analysis throughout this Show Call, even when he guides them to recognize that they should use the remainder theorem. Denarius doesn't solve the problem; all he really does is tell them how to perceive that their answer does not make sense. Once he's guided them to that realization, they know how to solve it.

Show Call is a simple and powerful concept but one that can feel risky to try for some teachers. If you've never done it, you can imagine how you or your students would feel if it didn't work.

In light of that I will describe a typical progression—what Show Call might look like at different stages in a classroom so the pathway to a lesson like Denarius's becomes clear. The technique involves shared culture and routines that must be intentionally built. A Show Call is unlikely to look like Denarius's the first time a teacher and her students try it.

An early Show Call could, however, look a bit like Paul Powell's in the video Paul Powell: Show Call.

The student whose paper Paul takes is Kahlila. Here's a still shot of him doing that. Paul's pretty nonchalant in his body language—casual (see technique 58, Strong Voice), but Kahlila is not. It's likely she feels a bit anxious; even if Paul has explained what a Show Call is and why he does it, she's nervous. My paper? Oh no!

That's why Paul's framing when he presents student work is so important. “The theme of the day is showing your work,” Paul says. “So I'm going to show off Kahlila's work.” Suddenly everything has changed. My team and I refer to this moment in the Show Call as “the reveal”: the moment when you show the student work and frame how the class should think about it. You'll notice again and again how important the reveal is in building culture. Kahilia now knows that Paul's sharing her work is a good thing. He's showing it off.

“Look at that,” Paul continues, pointing out details of her now-projected work. “Boom. Formula. Plugged it in. Very neat. Boom.” If, a moment before, Kahlila's primary emotion was anxiety, it's now pride.

The culture Paul is building isn't simplistic, though. He's also sowing the seeds of self-study and improvement—a good-to-great culture. As he highlights the many things to love about Kahlila's work, he normalizes the process of making it better. “There's one little thing we're going to fix here in a second,” he says, making sure that the first few times he asks students to share their mistakes feel especially safe and nonthreatening.

A few moments later, Paul returns to the idea of improvement. “What is the one little thing she can fix?” he asks, and here is Kahlila's reaction:

There are lots of hands up, but Kahlila's is the straightest. Her body language is unmistakable. “Call on me now, Mr. Powell! I can make it even better!” She's proud, in other words, and eager to show how much else she knows.

What we see here is not just a single Show Call that helps students to better see how to solve a problem and how to avoid a common mistake, but a procedure—and the culture to support it—that makes students feel lovingly accountable for their written work and unafraid of having it presented to the class. Paul's example is a road map for the first few times you use the technique; emphasize positivity and make students feel honored by and comfortable with the process.

Over time the goal is to build a culture in which, as we saw in Denarius's class, students understand implicitly that one of the ways they honor a classmate's work is by helping them to see both its success and also how to improve.

You can see this progression of Show Call culture clearly in the video Ijeoma Duru: Almost-There Work. Ijeoma is sharing the work of a student named Deborah and starts by asking students to give Deborah some “snaps and shine.” This ideally makes Deborah feel supported; it also, perhaps even more importantly, reminds the class: this is a classmate's work. We'll study it and improve it, but don't forget to be appreciative in your tone and comments as we discuss.

Like Denarius and Paul, Ijeoma uses her “reveal” to shape the culture that surrounds the Show Call: “Deborah has some ’almost there’ work but I want us to work together and use her annotations to fix it,” she says. She then asks students to focus on the second half of Deborah's work and “snap if you see something you agree with.” This is a clever move. Every one of Deborah's classmates just affirmed that, like Fagan, she got plenty right in her answer. Even if there's something to improve on, there's a lot to the good and it's obvious to everyone. Ijeoma next asks a few students to describe what they agree with. This isn't just about building Deborah up; it also reinforces their understanding. It's a form of Retrieval Practice (technique 7), encoding knowledge more deeply in long-term memory via recall and, here especially, elaboration. “Beautifully explained,” Ijeoma says to Jules, whom we can't see, after he has put the ideas he sees on the graph into new words. He's done well, but it was hard work. You could hear the labor in his voice. Memory is the residue of effort. He's worked hard to elaborate precisely, and this will help him remember and encode, and Ijeoma shows her appreciation for his work.

But there's another crucial benefit to Show Call that we see evidence of in Ijeoma's class. Deborah has annotated the diagram to show that there are corresponding angles in it—she's written the phrase across the side—but not where they are. She knows they're there —she just isn't sure how to find them. This underscores the critical and underrated role of perception in learning.

“She says that there must be corresponding angles somewhere,” Ijeoma says, referring to Deborah's annotation, “and I agree,” but then she asks: “Where should I place a star for the other angle that corresponds to that 25?” She calls on Michaela and as Michaela narrates her thought process, something very important is happening. Everyone is looking at what Michaela is describing as she describes it. If you want a group of people to problem solve, they need to all be looking at the same version of a problem. With the work projected, Ijeoma can guide students' eyes through their study of it. She is teaching them mathematical concepts and how to perceive on their own when they apply. While this is an example from a math class, perception is equally important, if not more critical, in studying a section of text, either from a writing or a close reading perspective. The discussion can be radically improved when a student states vaguely that she likes the “details” or the “writing style” in a peer's passage. “Great,” you can suddenly say, “let's take a look at some of the details that stand out to you,” or “Great, let's read it together and annotate some of the lines that help her create such a distinctive tone.”

Learning starts, most often, with perception, something so basic we often overlook it. Most of our brain is a system for visual perception—much of it unconscious. We look where we look out of habit, and if we learn to look in the right places, we're far more likely to be successful. Decisions almost always start with our eyes. In that sense, students are a bit like athletes. Those who see at a glance where to pass or how to block an opponent make their decisions first and foremost because they are looking for the right things and in the right places. Their eyes go to the parts of a problem where the relevant signal will appear. This is a key piece of their expertise. The more expert the decision maker, the more likely this precise looking is to happen. Or perhaps it's the other way around. The more likely a decision maker is to look at the right things, the more expert they are likely to be.¹² Projecting a problem allows us to engage student's perception in the problem-solving process. In a moment, I'll show you another example of this.

Show Call works because there is learning power in looking: we build students' perception ability. The content that we look at together remains fixed in students' attention and engages the portions of their brains—the majority of the brain—that rely on and process visual information.

Watch how powerfully Julia Addeo leverages the idea of guided or shared perception in the video Julia Addeo: Expand, in which she Show Calls Monet's work and where Monet, interestingly, has made two different efforts to solve a problem. Julia doesn't tell students which one is correct. The goal is for students to discern which solution is correct and why—or for them to be able to look and perceive what mathematical tool will work. Notice how focused on perception Julia's questions are: “What did Monet do on the left?” The first student Julia calls on does not correctly perceive the strategy Monet is using and Julia's response is powerful. “What did she do in this first line here?” She still hasn't told them the answer; she's just helping them know where to see it.

Show Call can also work by asking students to use comparative judgment—it can place two examples close together and ask students to discern the differences. When the next student describes Monet's first step correctly, Julia labels it. Now that they can see the math, she wants to associate a name with it. “Let's write that in our notes: expand,” Julia says. Now they can see what it looks like and associate it with its technical name. Then another perception question: “Once she [Monet] expanded, what did she do then?” And then for the other side, Julia again asks a perception-based question, “What did she do?” To perceive is to understand. Now that they understand the steps Monet took in each case, students have to decide which solution was more useful. Julia goes to a Turn and Talk (technique 43) and then uses Show Me (technique 10).

In the video Rousseau Mieze: Source Line, you can observe Rousseau Show Calling two examples of student work and asking the class to discern why one of them is stronger than the other. Once again this demonstrates how Show Call can be especially powerful when it asks students to compare examples because it leverages the power of a cognitive principle called “the law of comparative judgment”—simply put, this is the idea that people are better at making comparisons between pieces of work than at making absolute judgments about quality. Humans are likely to learn more by comparing one piece of work to another, rather than to an abstract standard.¹³ Want students to see the subtle differences between good and great writing? Show them two different examples and suddenly the conversation will accelerate—and the subtler the differences, the more advanced and more nuanced a conversation they will yield. In other words, if you want to do really rigorous study of student writing, compare a very good example to a great one. Or show the class two similar approaches and study how the small differences allow them to achieve different ends. “I want to talk about which one is strongest,” Rousseau tells the class in his reveal. Then notice how he reads the two student answers aloud, one immediately after the other, to make subtle differences as apparent to students as possible.

The video Rose Bernunzio: Good Catch also shows the benefit of using Show Call to compare two students' work, and it's worth comparing some of the similarities and differences between Rose's approach and Rousseau's. Both begin with a question that emphasizes perception—essentially, what's the difference—and both intentionally try to boost their ratio in this critical moment, getting every student to discuss via a Turn and Talk. They want everyone doing this cognitive work. But whereas Rousseau asks students to “snap it up” for two classmates whom he identifies, Rose deliberately keeps the identities of her students anonymous. Balancing anonymity and credit is a variable you can consider in the “reveal.”

There are also variables in the “take,” the name we use for another key culture-setting part of the Show Call, the moment when you take a student's paper. Do you explain why? Do you merely take it and presume it's understood? Do you ask? In this case, Rose subtly asks the student whose paper she takes. It's more of a courtesy than anything else. Rose also diffuses the pressure a bit by saying, “Lots of people are making this mistake.” Ironically, the “take” is often smoother if it's simpler. Rousseau, like Denarius and Paul, uses an “unnarrated take.” He does not ask permission. It's important to note that he can do this because, in his classroom, Show Calling is an established procedure that students understand clearly. And because a Culture of Error is intact, an unnarrated take won't work without those things in place. Another important difference between the clips is what happens afterwards. Rousseau asks students to revise their answers. Rose asks students to apply the same method to parts B and C of the problem. Two slightly different applications of an idea we also saw in Ijeoma's Show Call, which ended with the phrase “Make sure you have this written on your paper.” The message in all three cases is: We just spent a lot of time learning something important; make sure you have it down. This foreshadows technique 14, Own and Track.

Show Call can also help students to see and understand their mistakes by showing the solution rather than the error. You can see Sarah Wright do the first of those in the video Sarah Wright: Show Call Discussion. In her study of the novel Esperanza Rising, her reveal explains the purpose of her Show Call: “We are going to Show Call some students' work, have them explain their work a little bit, and then you'll be able to add to your paper.” She's Show Called some of the strongest pieces of work in the room; she wants the rest of the class to take notes on the gaps between their own work and these examples. Multiple times she returns to Trey's paper to point out what's excellent about it. She uses Trey's observations, perhaps the strongest in the class, to start a conversation in which students expand and elaborate on his ideas. What they ultimately write down is Trey's answer plus the class's further reflections on the best-written ideas that emerged.

A final note: Show Call appeared in TLAC 2.0 as part of a section on Building Ratio. And, indeed, it does boost the amount of cognitive work that students do, but it's most powerful, I have been arguing, as a tool to respond to error as a group, and so I have moved it to an earlier spot in the text. That said, as Sarah intimates here, it is also an excellent tool for revising and expanding ideas and so I will return to it in Chapter 8, “Building Ratio Through Writing.”

During the Show Call: Two Key Moments

There are two especially important moments to manage during a Show Call: the take—the moment when you take a student's paper off his or her desk with the intent to project it—and the reveal—the moment when you show the work to the class. What you say and how you frame what you are doing are especially important at these points of inflection.

The Take

The goal is to make the take feel familiar to a student. We want to remind them that Show Call is an everyday event and that almost everyone's work will be projected at some point. And we want Show Call to feel safe. Nothing bad or humiliating will happen. In many ways those things go together. A seamless “take” where the teacher calmly selects a students’ paper from their desk and says very little—perhaps offers a nod of thanks or a brief smile, or whispers “Can I borrow this?” mostly as a courtesy—communicates best the calm normalcy of Show Call. It suggests routine.

That said, “If the culture is built right” is a statement not to take lightly. Strong positive cultures constantly need reinforcement and reinvigoration, so mixing in a bit of positive framing is also sometimes helpful. Arielle Hoo offers a great example of that in the video Arielle Hoo: Strong Work. “I'm coming around to look for strong work to Show Call,” she says matter-of-factly, reminding students that Show Call is an honor. Suddenly, Ms. Hoo lingering at your desk is a sign that all is well. Then you'll notice when she takes Tyler's paper she looks at it admiringly but says nothing:

An alternative might be a quiet explanation to a student to remind them of the purpose: “Your work is really interesting. I'd love to share it with the class.” You might do more such framing early on in your use of take, transitioning later to more unnarrated takes. But less is often more. There are definitely times to say, “Oh, this is great. I can't wait to share it,” but if you have to say it every time you wish to “take” a paper, it becomes nearly meaningless.

In some cases (it's early in the year and you're building culture; or a student may be self-conscious about the mistake they've made) a bit more of an “ask” is appropriate with the take, but often a simple statement of purpose preceding the question is helpful: “I'd love to share this with the class, OK?” is even better than “Can I share this with the class?” A smile or some positive words of affirmation, “You're doing fine; I'd love to share your work,” always helps. It can also help to crouch down and put yourself on an eye level with the student.

It's up to you whether you want to give students the right to say no when you ask, but for most teachers, it's more of a courtesy than a real option. That said, if a student were to object, you might respond with, “Well, let's see how it goes. I really think it will be worthwhile,” or “OK, how about if I keep you anonymous?” or “Why don't I start, and if you get uncomfortable you can signal me to stop.”

The Reveal

The way you “reveal” written work to the class frames the way students interpret it and sets the tone for the rest of the Show Call. One factor to consider is whether you want to name the student whose work you show. Naming a student can help you make Show Call feel like a reward, but anonymity can be effective as well, especially if it makes you and your students more comfortable being constructively and positively critical in the revision stage.

Another important part of the reveal is whether and how the work is read. You could have students read it silently, but often you or a student may want to read part of it aloud. Reading written work with expression, careful attention, and appreciation is one of the best and most sincere ways to show how much you value and appreciate it. It also unlocks much of the meaning and expression in the words.

A last factor in the reveal is whether you want to tell students what they should look for (“Let's look to see if Martina has used active, dynamic verbs. What do you think?”) or use a nondirective reveal (“Here's what Martina wrote. What do you think?”) A directive reveal can help you be more efficient and focused, ensuring a tight, productive discussion on what's most important. Giving students more latitude via a nondirective reveal can allow students to simulate the revision process more closely and to identify issues they consider relevant. Noting what students observe unprompted can also be a useful source of data.

Arielle Hoo's clip is a model of subtlety. The reveal, “Let's take a look at Tyler's work. Tyler, please explain what you did to check,” is a model of Culture of Error. She's calm and steady but withholds the answer. Only after Tyler's description of his own work does it turn out that he's checked his work in a way that a few students have forgotten to do. Then there's further study by the class of all the reminders of strong mathematical habits that his solution provides.

Low-Tech Show Call

No document camera in your classroom? So be it. While you're in the process of petitioning district higher-ups to provide the single most useful and affordable piece of technology to enhance teaching available, here are four ways to do a low-tech Show Call in the meantime:

1. Show Call a piece of writing from yesterday's class or last night's homework by collecting it and making a transparency for use with the 1980s version of the document camera: the overhead projector. There's probably one sitting in a closet somewhere.

2. If there's no overhead projector, you can always simply copy the student work (last night's homework or yesterday's in-class writing) and ask students to edit at their desks.

3. Ask students to work on “slates”—mini whiteboards students can write on at their desks. Select one and show it to the class as your Show Call.

4. Transcribe a crucial sentence from one student's work on the board and “live edit” it with the class. My colleague Paul Bambrick-Santoyo recommends using flip chart paper for this purpose. Then the notes that capture the class's analysis can live on in your classroom as a permanent record of your collective thinking.