Fish hook questions: (n.) plural. Questions thrown out to a class or group in hopes that someone will answer; often followed by squirmy silence and often answered by the same 2 or 3 students every day.
 Quiz: How do you know if you're asking fish hook questions?

1. You have an period of awkward silence - crickets - followed by the same 2 or 3 students (4 if you're lucky) offering responses  
2. You find that you're having a lovely conversation with only 1 or 2 students.
3. When you randomly call on someone, it is often followed by, "uuuuuuuummmmm, IIIIIII'mmmm not sure...what page are we on?"
   
4. You have ever found yourself responding, "Well, if you were paying attention, you'd know." Don't get me wrong, there are PLENTY of legitimate times to say this!
   

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then, yes, you indeed ask fish hook questions. Rest assured, however, you are in good company. I dare say most of us ask them even when we know there are more effective ways to elicit crowd participation!
The problem is that a small handful of students will be engaged in academic dialogue, some students will gain a few tidbits, but many will gain nothing.

Before we get into the how's, we must first understand the why's. Why don't more students respond in class? The answers lie in how we process information.

• Many students need time to process the question before they are ready to answer.
• Using verbal questions and asking for immediate verbal answers activates only the auditory modality. 
• Many students need to process thoughts through writing or drawing before they are able to answer. 
• Students often need more structure beyond simply allowing more "wait time."
• Students who test out their responses in a pair or very small group become more confident and offer more detailed answers than those who don't.

It's is usually not defiance behind reticent students; it's most often differences in processing and expressing information. How many times have you said, "Wait, just let me get my thoughts together!" 
So how do you give everyone the time and space they need. Here are a few strategies:

• Think, Write, Pair, Share: this one's been around a good while, but don't underestimate its effectiveness.
• Numbered Heads Together: GREAT strategy to keep everyone on their toes!

A common trap we high school teachers fall into is thinking that our kids walk in our classrooms as blank slates. We have pacing guides and unit plans, and we need to start at the beginning and end at the end.

Question to ponder...What do our students already know or partially know coming into our classes? We often forget about one of our most valuable resources in our classrooms -- student prior knowledge. Pre-tests are a great way to begin identifying what kids know, kind of know, and have no clue about.
Think about how precious time is for us. Why would we spend unnecessary time on ideas, concepts, or skills they already have when we really need to work on those they don't? Talk about being efficient with our time!
Also, why be a lone wolf? Develop a pretest with your PLC so you can look at patterns and share ideas on how to address them.
Don't forget...even the Lone Ranger had Tonto and Silver.

Click here for a great Common Assessment Development Guide that helps take the guesswork out of making those assessments.

Mick said it, so it must be true. We never seem to have enough of it, but do we have slow leaks in our hourglass? 
Seems we never notice a leaky faucet until we get the water bill!
Let's do the math: a lost 5 minutes everyday in a semester-long class (let's say 85 days), translates into a lost 425 minutes by exam time. That's a little over 4 1/2 class periods - almost a full week!
So how do we recoup that ticking gold? Transitions tend to be the most difficult for teachers and students to manage efficiently. Here are a few tips for minimizing transition confusion.
1. Beginning of class - one of the worst time voids of the entire class period! Taking roll, settling down, getting materials out - it's like a Van Halen video. "I don't feel tardy"

• Systems and routines: have a bell ringer, warm-up, class starter, whatever name you want to call it. Be consistent and set it as the expected routine every time they walk into your class. This opens up the minutes you need to take attendance, take care of make up or missed work, etc. More class beginning strategies to come!

2. Group work/Independent work: "You have 2 minutes to work on this with your group." Four minutes later..."Ok, you have 1 minute left!" Sound familiar?

• Use timers: big, loud, visible timers. Not like fire drill loud, but you get the idea. We have been conditioned to respond to countdowns and bells - use it to your advantage. Display a countdown timer so students begin monitoring themselves rather relying on you to watch the clock. You need your attention free to work with groups and students anyway. Stick to your times and have a report out or follow up ready to keep accountability.
• Minute Fingers: Will students sometimes legitimately need more time? Definitely. Groups hold up the number of additional minutes they need. I suggest giving them a limit here as well - maybe 0, 1, or 2. More time is not unlimited time. Go with the majority or an average. Again, set that timer!!

Here are some great online timers with fun visuals and alarms:
Online-Stopwatch
Rocket Timer
Egg Timer
Candle Timer

Make notes about down time in your class. When do they typically happen? For how long? Once you can identify the when and why, figuring out the how to fix becomes a little easier.

With first semester quickly drawing to a close, many of us will be looking at a whole new crop of faces in a few short days. Since we know that building relationships is a critical factor in classroom management and student achievement, how do you begin putting names with faces at the beginning of each semester?
Here are a few more ideas...

1. Wordle: Using www.wordle.net, students create a personal word cloud. Have them enter descriptors, hobbies, important people, places, belongings, etc. Students can enter a term multiple times so it will show larger in their cloud. They can then play with color, font, and layout to make it even more unique.

2. Tagxedo: Very similar to Wordle, but Tagxedo doesn't adjust the size of words based on their frequency. It does, however, allow students to make their word clouds in various shapes. They can even upload a simple image to shape their clouds.

3. Commonalities: Begin with partners for this activity. The goal is to identify unique activities or experiences that students have in common. After the pair finds at least three things they have in common, they raise their hands to find another group of two ready to form a group of four. The four must find 2 things they all have in common. They then look for another group of 4 to form 8. This group must find at least 1 thing they all share. The more unique and unusual the better. 
You may have to set specific criteria for the commonalities such as, it must be something specific - not, 'we all hate math' or 'we all go to the same school.' They must find common events, experiences, books they've read, etc.

4 Which Side of the Road are You on? Create a line on the floor with masking tape, string, chalk, ets. Ask either/or questions and have students move to a designated side of the line to show their answers. Students may also stay on the line if they are 'on the fence' or a little of both. Examples:

• Mac or PC?
• Dogs or Cats?
• Loud or Quiet?
• Hamburger or Salad?
• Math or English?
• Truck or Car?
• Mountains or Beach?
• Neat or Messy?
• Plan ahead or Last Minute?

Create your own opposite pairs as well. You can make them silly, content related, or a mix of both.
For more ideas...click here.
Source: www.teamworkandteamplay.com

Want to learn? Get Moving!!!
Fast Fact: Incorporating movement strategies during the learning process actually increases the number of neural connections in the brain and increase alertness. Wow! Livelier brains in the classroom!
This is the first in a series of Lit Tips centered around the mind/body/learning connection and how to make it happen effectively in your classroom everyday. 
Included in each installment will be a Fast Fact and a new Bust a Move strategy.
So here we go...
Bust a Move:
"Brain Breaks" are a fun, time-efficient way to ramp up brain activity. Check out this 2-3 minute brain break you can throw in when you see those eyes begin to glass over. It's called "The Waiter."

In her edublog, Tracee Orman introduces us to,"Five Ways to Use Memes to Connect With Students." Here are a few of her examples - hilarious!

Which word would be more difficult for students to understand? "Mitosis" or "respectively?"
Academic vocabulary found in text books and standardized tests can be just as challenging for students to understand in context as content-specific terms - sometimes more so.
What is academic vocabulary? They are words that...

• are common to all content areas.
• show relationships between content-specific terms (consequently, respectively, therefore, sequential).
• tell students what to do with concepts or information (synthesize, discern, differentiate, characterize).
• are common in academic texts, text books, and standardized testing.

What's a teacher to do?
Academic vocabulary controls the meaning of sentences, paragraphs, and questions. To help students comprehend academic texts, we must teach them academic vocabulary just as we would our content-specific vocabulary - explicitly, systematically, and intentionally. Otherwise, students may know the specific words of our courses, but they won't be able to figure out how they fit together or relate to each other.

Literacy Standards addressed through teaching academic vocabulary:

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.4  Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grade-level texts and topics.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.5
  Analyze the structure of the relationships among concepts in a text, including relationships among key terms (e.g., force, friction, reaction force, energy).
  
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.7
  Translate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text into visual form (e.g., a table or chart) and translate information expressed visually or mathematically (e.g., in an equation) into words.
  
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.10
  By the end of grade, read and comprehend science/technical texts in the grade-level text complexity band independently and proficiently.
  

Great example of literacy in a high school content class. In this 7 min. video, the teacher packs in multiple effective literacy strategies: peer collaboration, vocabulary instruction, reading informational text, student talk, using clear learning targets...
A MUST-see!