When I was studying jazz saxophone, one of the things my teachers had me do was learn "licks" or "clichés" (not meant perjoratively), that is, little collections of notes that other sax players had used before me, that you could call upon spontaneously within a solo in order to connect your more original ideas together.
When I began teaching, my own teachers offered a few "licks" or "clichés" to bring to the classroom - starting with techniques to quickly get a group quiet. Since then, I've been unofficially collecting these "licks", and it occurred to me today that I should put my collection online. So here's what I've got so far:
Getting students to be quiet quickly:
- Clap "Shave and a Haircut" - students respond by clapping "two bits"
- Shout "Mama Se Mama Sa Mama Ku Sa" - students respond in kind (from Bobby Shaddox).
- Say "point at the screen if you can hear me" (from Carol Cabrera).
- Count down from 5 - "quiet in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1" (get quieter as you count down).
- Say "Clap once if you can hear me… Clap twice if you can hear me…"
- Variation on 5: Just say "Clap one time… Clap two times…" (from Sonya Ramirez).
Regulating noise:
- Establish three consistent volume levels: Restaurant (everyone talking), Library (mostly silent, talk if you need to ask a peer for something), Outer space (total silence). You can tell students "OK, outer space for 5 minutes, then we'll shift to Library" (Bobby Shaddox and Allie Wong).
Calling on students to respond to questions:
- Have a box of popsicle students that students have written their names on, pull out a popsicle stick to call on a student.
- I often use these for students to read out what I've got onscreen in a presentation. I try not to use this to call on students to do something that's more cognitively challenging, because I don't want to freak kids out and I know sometimes this just leads people to freeze up. However, it's really important that kids get cold-called to do cognitively challenging stuff, so it's not always the same kids who do it! My way of handling this is to have kids pair-share before I pull a popsicle stick - that way, students aren't just saying what they are thinking, they're saying what "they and their partner" are thinking.
- Call on students in threes - in other words, if five people are raising their hand, say "Mike, then Sarah, then James" (from Michelle Clark).
Prompts for responding to reading
- Choose a "golden line" - that is, a line that really grabbed you. Then say why you chose it, or ask a question about it.
Questions to ask during critique
- "Does the writing sound like the person who wrote it? (from Carol Cabrera).