I had the joy of spending some time in a fellow high school teacher’s classroom recently, and I was drawn to one of her walls covered in bright paper. A larger-than-life mind web was spun, pulling students to the center of the web which read, "IDK" with a giant slash through the middle. Reminiscent of a no smoking sign, no cell phone zone, or any other "no" zone, this red circle with a slash clearly set the expectation that students could not respond to a teacher asked question with the words, "I don’t know."

So what do they do if they really don’t know? Snaking out from the center of the wall was a series of options for students who have hit a mental wall, or might just be caught off guard. In Who Wants to be a Millionaire game show style, some of the options read: "Can I phone a friend?", "50/50", and "I’ll get back to you!" If a student was called on for a response and did not have the answer, they could "phone a friend" by asking one friend for help in the class. This option could only be used once, however! They could also opt for the "50/50" helpline, in which the teacher would give two options of responses, with only one being correct. Finally, students could ask the teacher to come back to them, so they would have time to review their notes.

I was amazed to realize that, by simply having these options visible, students were less intimidated to respond to questions. With anxiety levels lowered as the fear of failure diminished, students participated more freely in class. This is just one great technique for empowering your students and holding them to a high level of expectation!