Patient Hands
With the technique Patient Hands, you ask a question and allow hands to go up, but don’t choose a student to answer immediately. Instead, you wait and encourage more hands to go up. You might say things like:
“I’d like to see a few more hands, please.”
“I can see a few hands up, but I’d like everyone to be thinking about this. I’m going to wait for a few more.”
Why use this technique?
Patient Hands helps to encourage more students to think about the question than if you quickly choose a student to answer. It can stop the most confident students from being the only ones to offer answers. It can also help you gauge how easy or difficult students are finding a question.
Example
In a geography lesson…
Teacher: ‘What is the difference between latitude and longitude? Hands up.’
Two hands go up immediately. You smile at these students but don’t choose them to answer. You wait five seconds. More hands go up in this time.
Teacher: ‘I can see six hands now. Come on, let’s have a few more.’
You wait a few seconds longer. More hands go up.
Teacher: [To a student who has their hand up.] ‘Carl, you go first.’
Focused reflection
How well do you currently use this technique?
Is it a technique you will focus on developing?
If so, what are the key features you will focus on (things to do, and not do)?