Using the 4 C’s to Maximize Engagement
by Adrian Bunn Walker
A & J Educational and Professional Consulting
While working as a teacher-mentor in a large Washington school district, I had a unique opportunity to spend many hours observing and coaching excellent teachers in their professional settings and classrooms. I came to learn as much or more from them as they might have learned from me.
One of the most interesting patterns that emerged during these observations was what usually happened during the Teaching Phase (Michael Grinder/ENVoY) of the lesson. Helping teachers learn to use Grinder’s Gem 3: Raise Your Hand vs. Speak Out resulted in establishing the management teachers wanted—students avoided speaking out after a question, the classroom remained more controlled and quiet, and the teacher was able to set the pace of questioning. All great results it seemed, but more times than not, only a very few students participated in actually raising their hands before the teacher called for an answer. In one excellent first year teacher’s classroom, the teacher asked just over 70 test review questions, and only the same 7 of 26 students engaged by raising their hands throughout the entire session!
That got me to thinking…Is this happening in my own classroom? Am I aware of the percentage of students I can actually see engaged in thinking and processing content when I ask cognitive questions? Upon return to the classroom, I began experimenting with strategies that would purposefully result in getting at least 80% of students to raise their hands before calling on anyone for an answer. A series of strategies took shape, and I began referring to them as the 4 C’s whenever my mentor/coaching role provided the opportunity.
Below is the refinement strategy of the 4 C’s:
1. The Goal—Get 80% or more student hands up before calling for an answer.
*Be mindful to avoid threatening to call on anyone whose hand is not up! The threat alone may cause false responses and invalidate engagement perception.
2. Use ENVoY Gem 3 by Michael Grinder: “Raise your hand if you know what ____ is.”
#1 C—COUNT the number of hands raised. (Visual and/or auditory learners will be first hands up here.) “One, two, four, s-i-x, s-e-v-e-n.”
#2 C—Coax the class to get more engagement. (Keep verbiage brief so there is silent time for thinking/processing.) “Ummm, let’s get more hands up…seven more…good!”
#3 C—Clue with a best practices strategy. (Again, waiting patiently, still and quiet and breathing deeply allows each type of learner (VAK) the ability to maximize their capacity to solve the question.) Teacher might say, “Here’s a clue,” or “Student’s name, can you give us a clue,” or “Try a 10 second pair share with someone who has a hand up,” or “Do a 10 second “turn to your neighbor and try to solve”, or “We need a 10 second “search page #___ or look in your notes,” etc.
Now teacher decides…are there 80% or more hands up? (If so, take an answer…if there are not, perhaps class is not ready for this content and teacher needs to “teach” not “manage” now.) The teacher might say, “Um, we aren’t ready to answer this yet. Hands down and let’s work a little more on this.”
If the class is at 80% or more engaged with hands up…teacher takes an answer.
#4 C—Confirm by checking in with class. (This is an opportunity to get 100% engagement. A suggestion is to use the inclusive pronoun “we” when asking the final C question.)
The teacher asks/says, “Raise your hand if you think we have the correct answer.” Then the teacher asks/says, “…And raise your hand if you think we might have another answer that would work.”
While the 4 C’s questioning/management process definitely takes more time than traditional question and answer strategies, it almost always results in many more students cognitively processing content. Isn’t it better to work through fewer guided practice questions or problems and at the end have everyone able to answer, than rushing through more questions, with only a small percentage of students actually able to do the work?
Some benefits of this refinement are:
- More control of think time and participation the teacher can see.
- Higher student percentages of engagement with content.
- Less need to re-teach after guided practice is over.
- Improved content accuracy during independent practice.
Teachers who use the 4 C’s refinement consistently and systematically report they are pleased with the results and enjoy the benefits that come with them. I hope you enjoy this refinement, too!