How To Get Your Students To Ask For Help

If you're a teacher it can be a challenge to get students to ask for help, especially the ones that really need it. So how do you do it? Call on them anyway even if they don't ask? Talk to them after class? Drop a note on their desk?

Karenne Joy Sylvester has an interesting way of getting her students to ask for help, Beam Their Errors on the Wall. She says to:

1. Type up a quick list of common errors
2. Don't write any names
3. Beam it on the wall using a projector
4. Let them look at it
5. Stand at the back of the room so they don't ask any initial questions toward you
6. Let them speak to each other and see if they can work some of it out together
7. Let learning happen

What a great way to point out some errors, get students to recognize it and then work it out together with you constantly monitoring and facilitating!