Cold Calling

A whole-class questioning technique where the teacher selects respondents without waiting for volunteers. The question is posed first, a deliberate pause follows, and a named learner is then called to answer. Codified in Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion 2.0 as one of its core techniques, adapted from the Socratic questioning style of the Harvard Business School case method.

Aim

Two outcomes drive the practice. First, attention: when any learner can be called, every learner has to think the question through, because hand-raising is no longer the way out. The default whole-class pattern (the teacher asks, a few keen hands go up, one is chosen) leaves most learners as passive bystanders. Cold calling raises the participation ratio without changing the question.

Second, normalisation: being called on stops being a marker of trouble or unusual attention. A class where cold calling is the standard procedure produces less freezing, more developed answers, and quieter access to the voices of learners who never volunteer.

Sequence

Pose the question. Pause for thinking time — this is critical, since calling a name first cues other learners to switch off. Name the respondent. Listen, then either accept the answer, probe further, or ask the rest of the class to extend or correct. Lemov stresses that the technique works only when applied predictably across the class. Singling out one learner repeatedly turns it into a punishment device, which destroys its purpose.

Warm vs cold variants

A pure cold call gives no advance warning. A warm call signals shortly before ("I'm going to ask you in a moment, Mai") to give a less confident learner a few seconds to compose. Both are legitimate; the warm variant is the entry path for classes where cold calling is new, or for individual learners whose risk threshold is genuinely low. Over time the class should be able to handle the cold form as the default.

Common pitfalls

Naming before posing the question. Calling only on quiet learners. Calling only on confident learners. Using cold calling as a discipline measure when a learner is off-task — Lemov is explicit that this corrupts the technique by making it punitive. The aim is to keep attention high, not to catch people out.

References

• Lemov, D. (2015). Teach Like a Champion 2.0: 62 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. Jossey-Bass.
• Harmer, J. (2015). The Practice of English Language Teaching (5th ed.). Pearson Longman.
• Scrivener, J. (2011). Learning Teaching: The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching (3rd ed.). Macmillan ELT.