1) Positive Interaction Ratios:
The ratio of our positive interactions to our negative ones impacts both joy and learning.
Research by Barbara Frederickson and Marcial Losada has found that the ratio of positive to negative interactions have a profound impact on someone’s cognitive as well as emotional well-being. They found that positivity “equips individuals with the adaptive bias to approach and explore novel objects, people, or situations.”
According to their research, normal human function is characterized by a ratio of 2.5 positive interactions for every 1 negative one. This ratio climbs to 4.3 to 1 for optimal functioning, and then 5 to 1 for successful marriages :). It’s important to note that these interactions are often less than 3 seconds.
Four thoughts to increase positive interactions tomorrow:
1. Smile more
2. Circulate the room more during lessons noticing and commending positive behaviors and work
3. Use kid’s name more when praising work or behavior in one on one interactions (remember growth mindset praise focuses on effort and actions)
4. Click for Constructive Responding guide
Misconception Alert:
Every interaction must be positive (misconception). Remember this is a ratio. According to research by Daniel Kahneman there are 20,000 moments in the day. This means there is plenty of room for negative interactions – we are just looking to have the ratio tilt more in the positive direction.
2) Questioning Ratios:
Increase the ratio of varied questioning techniques (playing basketball) to static questioning (playing catch) and the ratio of higher level questioning to lower level questioning.
Think of static questioning as a game of catch between the teacher and one student at a time and varied questioning as techniques that have students talking in a variety of different formats (to the teacher, to each other, whole-group oral response, raise your hand if…, in writing to each other, etc…)
Some varied questioning techniques include (For more on certain of these see Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion):
– Call and response
– Pre-call – alert a kid that you are going to call on them next
– Cold call – call on kids without warning
– Half-statements – means you start a statement and then stop mid-way which is a signal for the kids to raise their hands to finish your thoughts
– Fill in the blank
– What’s next/what comes before
– Unbundling – breaking a complex idea into its components.
– Elaborating or building on
– Why/how
– Testing the logic
– Playing dumb – intentionally making mistakes to see if the kids catch them
– Steering cues
– Asking students whether they agree or disagree with another student’s answer
Try elaborative interrogation (coined by Robert Marzano) and Stretch-it (coined by Doug Lemov) to increase ratio of higher-order thinking questions.
Elaborative Interrogation: Forces student to “prove,” “justify,” or “defend” their answers and those of their classmates in a positive manner (of course).
Some Elaborate Interrogation strategies include:
– “What are some typical characteristics you would expect of ______________”
– “What would you expect to happen if__________________________”
– “Why would that be true?” “How do you know that is true?”
– “Tell me why you think that is so?”
– “It seems to me that you are saying _________________”
Stretch-It (from Lemov’s pp.41-47): Reminds us not to stop with simple, correct answers but rather to push students to answer follow-up questions that extend knowledge or test for reliability/correctness (both of their own answers and those of their classmates).
Some Stretch-It strategies include:
– Ask How or Why
– Ask for Another Way to Answer
– Ask for a Better Word
– Ask for Evidence
– Ask Students to Integrate a Related Skill
– Ask Students to Apply the Same Skill in a New Setting
Four thoughts to improve questioning ratios tomorrow:
1. Try one of the strategies from the varied questioning list (my personal favorites are half-statements and a combination of pre-call and cold-call).
2. Try another one!
3. Try one strategy from Elaborative Interrogation (my personal favorite is “how/why do you know that is true/the case or false/not the case?”)
4. Try one “Stretch-It” strategy (my favorite here is asking for evidence).
Misconception Alert:
Every question needs to use a ratio strategy (misconception). You need to use these strategies to balance the needs of rigor, engagement, and pacing and timing. If you did a ratio strategy every time, you’d run out of time.
Misconception Alert #2:
These strategies apply only to oral questioning (misconception). These apply just as much to the written questions we structure for kids. Again, we must be cognizant of pacing and timing in all of the decisions we make as teachers.
By Dave Levin, KIPP Co-Founder
