Participants 14
Using Individual Turns Effectively
Example One:
The teacher, Louise, is teaching a reading lesson. After each exercise when students are firm, she gives fifty per cent of the individual turns to the lowest performers. Higher performers are still included in individual turns as students appreciate a chance to succeed.
She follows the individual turns technique of saying the prompt/question first, then pausing to give think time before calling a student name.
Example Two:
During a maths lesson, after the group is firm on the counting backwards exercise, teacher, Tom, says to the group, ‘Time to shine’. This statement tells the students it is time for individual turns. Tom says, ‘Count backwards from 8 to 3’ (pauses). ‘Tia.’ ‘Count backwards from 5 to 1’ (pauses). ‘Callum.’
Tom gives three more individual turns to check if students are firm on the exercise. He focuses the individual turns on lower performers in his group.