Since returning for Easter, one change I’ve been making is to insist that pupils answer questions in full sentences. I saw this on a Tweet from Lee Donaghy and Doug Lemov speaks about the ‘art of the sentence’ in Teach Like a Champion. In essence, the idea is that the more pupils practice speaking in a full sentence, the more able they will be to articulate their thoughts and improve their writing.
It also highlights if pupils really understand what
is being asked. A mumbled answer can mask a misunderstanding that whereas a
full sentence often can’t as it requires a fuller explanation. One thing I have
noticed is that even though the instruction is simply to answer in a full
sentence, the outcome is that pupils expand the point they are making.
In only a few weeks I’ve seen an improvement in both the
amount pupils are writing as well as the quality of their essays.
There are 4 points that I think are worth considering if you
are trying to implement this in your own classroom:
1. It is another way of communicating high expectations. In TLAC there is a section about think ratio, making sure pupils are thinking hard and participation ratio meaning everyone is thinking and I think this combines the two. If through cold calling pupils know they could be asked a question at any time, and if they are that they will need to answer with a full sentence, then pupils are constantly having to think deeply about every question asked.
I really like what Pritesh Raichura said about ‘one fact, one question’ and so if I ask 40-50 questions in a lesson and pupils are mentally preparing a full sentence answer for each one it is a lot of thinking going on before anyone has even put pen to paper. This is especially the case when it is combined with asking pupils to repeat the answer if subject terminology is not used effectively.
2. At first pupils can give up quickly. I found initially asking pupils to repeat their answer but in a full sentence led some pupils to give up, especially when asked to repeat a third or fourth time. It’s really important to be implemented ‘no opt out’ by having encouraging comments like ‘you have the just of the answer, now you just need to communicate it in the right way, I know you can do this.’
This is easier than when a pupil just says ‘I don’t know’ as you can tell them ‘I know you know this’ if they have given you a version of the right answer. I found pupils quite quickly adapted to the fact that they were not going to be able to get out of answering in a full sentence.
3. You need to communicate why you are insisting on this. This is probably true of any policy in your classroom but I found at first pupils thought that this was a bit of a quirk of mine but when I communicated why this was to be done then pupils buy-in was far greater. So when a pupil would start an answer with ‘cause…’ I would cut them off and say ‘Economists at the Bank of England don’t begin sentences with cause and you are training to be a world class economist so please start again with a full sentence’ or ‘the more we practice speaking as we will write in an essay, the better our essays will be.’
It might sound slightly cringey but I found that pupils bought into the idea quite quickly, especially as they started to see the results.
4. It is hard to remember to keep insisting on full sentences. As previously mentioned, I ask a lot of questions during a lesson and it is so easy to forget to insist on full sentences midway through a lesson when you have a hundred thoughts going through your head. I have a post-it note on my computer now to remind me as I am still trying to turn this into a habit. I am now 4 weeks in and it’s only in the last week or so that I feel confident I am consistently insisting on full sentences, helped by the fact it has now also become a habit for my students.
I should offer the caveat that I only teach pupils from Y10-13 but I have found the simple tweak of asking pupils to respond to me in full sentences to have been a big help in improving pupils understanding, written work and ensuring high academic expectations of all pupils.