In this section, Professor Emily Richmond Pollock shares how engaging students in warm-up exercises at the beginning of class sessions aligns with her practice of warm calling on students to promote rich, student-led discussions.
Warm Calling as a Guiding Philosophy
I open most class sessions with a warm-up exercise. These exercises ask students to think about and respond briefly (usually in writing) to content introduced in the homework. I’ve been using warm-up exercises since I was teaching as a graduate student because they align with my belief that students should be accountable for their learning. Instead of randomly firing questions at individual students, or “cold calling,” in warm calling scenarios, students have 10 minutes or so to put down on paper their responses to a prompt. This is followed by a classroom discussion during which students share their ideas and consider how close their responses were to those of others. Convergence and divergence in answers are both equally interesting.
Conversations that Shape Class Sessions
Although the students spend only 10 or 15 minutes completing the written response to the warm-up, the classroom discussion that follows can go on for quite a long time. I like it when that happens, and I like the opportunity this offers for students to develop their critical thinking skills. In particular, being in conversation with other people allows them to realize that their own experiences experiencing a particular piece of music could be totally different from someone else’s and that both experiences might be justifiable depending on the criteria or filter.
An Opportunity for Educators to Improvise
"I consider myself a pretty good improviser, and ideas and connections happening in class that I can’t anticipate are more interesting than knowing I have 75 bullet points to address."
Students’ conversations become the class session. That’s how I teach. There’s not a lecture, I don’t hold forth on particular topics for many minutes on end. Students have already done the work. They’ve completed the readings, looked at the details that I’ve asked them to explore, and come to class ready to share their reactions. Rather than dispensing information, I spend my time helping students refine their ideas.
Although this kind of teaching is inherently less predictable than lecturing, I consider myself a pretty good improviser, and ideas and connections happening in class that I can’t anticipate are more interesting than knowing I have 75 bullet points to address. I immensely enjoy my classroom dynamic and I hope my students do, as well.
