The Strategy: Everybody Writes
“Everybody Writes” is a strategy to further engage students in the lesson being taught and in class discussion. This technique requires that each student write their thoughts in response to a question or topic on a piece of paper individually before the class discusses the topic as a whole or an individual is called on by the teacher. It gives time for students to reflect and develop a more refined thought. Students could either write a short paragraph or one word depending on the time the teacher allowed and what the teacher was looking for. It also allows the teacher to gauge the responses of the class by looking over each student’s shoulder to read their response. Students will each have their own answer so the teacher can feel comfortable calling on any student and the student will be confident answering because they have a formulated thought. This strategy also engages students because each student is required to be engaged in the discussion even if they’re not called on to answer. This strategy is expanding the number of students participating deeply in the discussion and their readiness to respond as well as increasing the quality of the students’ answers.
Research Support:
The strategy is research-based because students remember twice as much of what they’re learning if they write it down. Therefore students are not only developing higher-quality answers but they are also going to retain the information and discussion better. This would also support the research regarding students with processing deficiencies. Such students require the teacher to provide more time for them to develop a response since it takes the students longer to create a response as they have to process both the question and the answer while most students only process the answer. Everyone in the room will have a response and those who it would’ve taken longer to process will also be able to participate in class discussions because they were allowed the time necessary. Students would also be more protected from the peer pressure that exists in the classroom, as their answers remain unbiased from the input of other classmates. Students who fall under the rejected and neglected categories within the sociometric classification (a measurement that reflects the degree to which someone is liked or disliked by their peers as a group) may have the opportunity to be reinforced at the peer level for good answers which would boost their self-esteem. Hearing from all students also adds perspective for students in the popular or well-liked groups as they are hearing the opinions of students who typically may not participate in classroom discussion. Perspective-taking has been shown to reduce bullying and reduce classroom hostility.
In the classroom:
In a special education classroom or any classroom, this strategy is useful when asking question with multiple answers or perspectives. The teacher could ask the class, “in what situations would we use addition outside of school?” The teacher should then instruct students to take out a piece of paper and write down at least one time or place that they could think of where they would need addition outside of the classroom. The teacher could walk around the room and survey students’ answers in order to gauge the breadth of responses. After circling the room, ask each student to quickly read their favorite response aloud. This would allow the other students to hear the similarities between responses as well as the multitude of places where addition is necessary outside of school. The teacher should also have previously compiled a list of their own in order to add to students’ answers in case there is little variety in the responses, but this way the discussion is still student-generated. This could be the start of an addition lesson or it could be the transition into what else students need in situations in the community other than addition. It could transition from needing addition while shopping into how to properly greet people in the grocery store, as many students need explicit instruction in this adaptive life skill. My list of uses for addition that students could possibly come up with is below:
