Cold calling has, for me, had a funny place in my lessons. I agree it has its benefits, but all too often things are thrust towards the English department's direction. We are left with trying to fit the new approach around how we do things. I discussed this with knowledge retrieval and knowledge before. My problem isn’t with common approaches, but a draconian aspect that it must be done this way or no way at all. For the uninitiated, cold calling is simply picking students to answer a question or to respond to a task. It stops the same four vocal students speaking all the time and it stops a large population daydreaming and twiddling their thumbs. The problem I have is the very nature of English. Sometimes, in a lesson we aren’t recalling quick facts or processing a formula to produce a fact. In fact, English is a very different kettle of fish. It is about opinions and experiences. I often say to students that English is the subject of opinions. We discuss the student’s opinions and we explore a writer’s opinions on a topic or idea. In fact, in any given lesson, we are looking at an opinion in English. And, this is the rub. The fuzziness of opinions is at the centre of English. What is interesting about the poem, Henry? What is your opinion of Macbeth at this moment? What is your favourite word in the line? What stands out in this section? Do you think the writer is effective at getting her message out? Why is Dickens not so critical about the poor here? All these questions might have a smidgen of factual basis but they largely employ an opinion of some form. There is a personal aspect that the student has to connect to. They aren’t just repeating or recalling facts. They are doing something extra which doesn’t quite sit well with throwing a question out to a sea of faces. Let’s take a question like this: What is your opinion of competitive fly-fishing? For a start, I don’t even know if it is such a competition. But, with that one question, you have to check your memory bank of fly-fishing, competitive sports and knowledge of sports to form your opinion. Like most of us, we haven’t got an opinion already stored in our brains. You’ll have some people who will have a clear dislike, like or indifference to the sport. Or, some will be clueless. To achieve an opinion, there are lots of little processes involved, which I find cold calling doesn’t help with. I would say that cold calling in English can be akin to solving quadratic equations without a sheet of paper. There are too many microprocessors for it to be an internal process for most students. For this reason, I worry that cold calling being the dominant process in lessons is dangerous, because it doesn’t work for opinions. Our opinions are funny. They are the combination of knowledge, experience and ‘the force’ or midi-chlorians. There’s something else deep inside. Yeah, Chris. You can cold call opinions, don’t you know? You could, but like most things it forces students to simplify. Like or dislike. The nuance is missed. The exploration is missed. Like all things, I think as a tool it has its benefits, but I also think it should be used with moderation. And, it should be used with caution with English lessons. Its use forces us down a fact driven way of perceiving our subject. Exploration is at the heart of our subject. Forming opinions and developing opinions needs to be a thrust of what we do. I do think English as a subject needs to kick back at some of the systems or processes that are being imposed. I think that there is an English version of these systems, but we need to find and explore it. We need to be exploring how they can work in our context rather than simply accepting them. Thanks for reading Xris
