Doesn’t Allow the Teacher to Check for Mastery

Doesn’t Allow the Teacher to Check for Mastery

During a maths lesson, Luisa (teacher) is using a ‘point-touch signal’ to count by fives. She says, “We are going to count to 50 by ‘fives’. Get ready”. She begins to touch the numbers that she has written on the whiteboard. She does not provide adequate think time. As a result, students do not respond at the appropriate time or with the correct answer. She continues through the exercise. At the end of the exercise, Luisa moves directly on the next exercise, assuming that all students can perform the task.

The timing of Luisa’s signals is inconsistent. The students are not given adequate time to think after the cue and are unable to provide a correct choral response. As a result, some students do not respond at all or delay their response. Some students do not understand the content and have not learned the skill to enable them to count to 50 by fives before moving on to the next exercise. During independent work, it becomes clear that not all students have mastered the content. Luisa must go back and reteach that part of the lesson to ensure that students are firm, resulting in the loss of valuable learning time that week.