Hey Mrs. Ripp, where is Panama? Hey Mrs. Ripp, what does sum mean again? Hey Mrs. Ripp, I don’t get it. Substitute your name for mine and and I am sure this is what many of our classrooms sound like on anay normal day. Except today I didn’t provide the answers, today I didn’t answer with what they wanted to hear. Instead I asked, “How will you find the answer? How will you figure that out?”
Not answering a child is not something I was taught in college, in fact, quite the opposite. I was taught the curriculum, taught to memorize it so I could give it back to the students whenever it was needed. Not anymore, not all the time. Now my students are being taught where to find the answer, where to turn to to figure it all out. Nothing revolutionary, nothing I invented, instead something I learned from watching other great teachers do it.
So today, what happened to those students that didn’t know the answer? Panama was found through studying our classroom map, sum was looked up in a math reference book, and an explanation was found through a classmate. Will this approach always work? Who knows. Today it did.
Have you tried not answering? Is it something we have to teach or can we throw students into it without help?
Pernille Ripp 
Awesome idea! Wow, that changes things!I've been good about pushing my questioning of my students to justify their answers with explanations and evidence, and I always tell them to "sound it out" if they ask how to spell a word, but I never thought to turn the tables like that. I'm totally going to try it out! Of course, I'll have to have those tools and resources there for them to make use of to find the answer.
I use this method almost exclusively in my foreign language classrooms. After much talk about this last year in graduate school, I started my year this year with a discussion on "know what to do when you don't know what to do." My high school students do well with it. (Now, when they ask and I answer, "how can you help yourself figure that out?" or, "know what to do…" I get eye rolls. :)) But I find that my middle school students, particularly my eighth graders (who have a little less patience), think it is extremely frustrating. They want instant gratification! And they get this in so many other aspects of their lives – text/IM provide immediate responses – so why shouldn't they get it from me? I guess that knowing the benefit for them from my end keeps me encouraging them to be independent learners. Keep it up, Mrs. Ripp!!
Mrs. Ripp! You rock! My dad used to do this to me as a child and it bugged the heck out of me! He always made ME find the answers on my own with a little guidance. NOW I do the same thing to my students (I teach K-8 Spanish) and I get the eye rolls and the frustration from my middle school kids, but lots of smiles and love from the little ones who are proud of themselves when they figure it out! GREAT post! It is so important to remember to NOT answer their questions sometimes. I forget sometimes. Thanks for the reminder!
Great work! I think we all need to work harder at NOT answering questions.Eileen
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Hi Mrs. Ripp, I am definitely going to try this approach. I am finding that my students are not pushing themselves (and therefore I must not be either) when it comes to figuring things out. The other day a student found a blank piece of paper on the floor and brought it to me and asked "What should I do with this?" Now did he really not know or was he looking for attention. I like the idea of kids exploring maps and using reference materials (even if it's online). Making it my goal to use these words in the upcoming week: "Where will you find the answer" or "How will you find the answer" and follow up to see how they did! Thanks!
Love your post! Your thoughts represent the shift that is happening in classrooms everywhere. No longer does the teacher have to be the sole authority and keeper of all knowledge. We will do well to challenge our kids to take ownership of their own learning and "guide" them to the places where answers can be found. Absolutely love where this is going! BH
This is a good example of a teacher being "less helpful", which is something I try to be quite often.
This is such an important skill and I have been trying really hard to do this in my classroom. I am a K-3 computer teacher and the questions like this are constant! However, I also realized that I needed to find a way to have the resources available for them to find the answer. On the flip side, I have students who are really good at asking another student, instead of trying to figure it out themselves. So when I see this happening, I try to encourage them to find a way to figure it out themselves. Relying on asking others (whether it is the teacher or another student) perpetuates dependency instead of independent thinking and possibly risk taking (especially with computers where they could click a few buttons to see what happens.)
I do this too! It's obvious to me from the reaction of my pupils when I respond to their question with another question that they are not used to being challenged like this. Creating independent learners must be what education is about. A useful strategy that I've read about is to put a notice at the front of the room which reads "Ask three before me".
When I was in my first year teaching a couple years back, I didn't answer these questions, much to the chagrin of my "take notes and do the exercises and take the test and then forget all I've 'learned'" students. But then one student had a breakthrough moment as a result of me not answering her question.Her question? "Mr. Wyzlic, is this right?" My answer? "What do you think?" It took her a few moments to recover from the emotional shock of my response, and we had a conversation about what she was working on. A couple days later, she came to me and said she "had never had a teacher ask [her] what [she] thought before." This was a 10th grader. I find that grossly irresponsible of teachers who have had her before. Because I didn't give her the answer she wanted, she received the answer she needed.
Hey Mrs. Ripp, How can you be so enlightening?Your ideas are wonderful! Autonomy is key is the learning process. I've been trying hard to make my sts not need me. And Oh, Lord! That's so difficult! This is what makes our students more confident, though. Every educator should put these ideas into their teaching practices.Congratulations!