November 22, 2016

Slowing Down to Learn: Mindful Pauses That Can Help Student Engagement
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In this excerpt from her book, Patricia Jennings, reminds us that the benefits of using wait time in our classrooms is not only for the students but also for us as teachers. “With conscious use of wait time, teachers’ questioning strategies become more varied and flexible, and they ask follow-up questions that require more complex information processing and higher-order thinking (Casteel & Stahl, 1973; Rowe, 1972; Stahl, 1990; Tobin, 1987).”
She also states that Robert Stahl (1990) identified eight categories of wait time.

1. Between a teacher’s question and the student’s answer time (wait time 1)
2. Within-student’s response pause time - time students may take once they called upon to answer a question
3. Post-student’s response wait time (wait time 2)
4. Student pause time - a pause after a student has initiated a question, statement, or comment but doesn’t complete the thought
5. Teacher pause time - taking time to consider how to construct an answer to a student question
6. Within-teacher-presentation pause time - a pause that the teacher intentionally initiates to allow students to process content
7. Student task completion work time - pause time intended to allow students to complete an academic task that demands undivided attention.
8. Impact pause time - the use of pause time to create impact or drama.

I’m going to focus on each of these eight wait times each week for the rest of the quarter. I challenge you to try each wait time along with me. For a VIRTUAL PD hour, write a reflection after each week and join us on Wednesday, January 25th from 2:30 – 3:30 to discuss your results. Please print the attachment to remind yourself of the schedule and why each wait time is important.