One practical technique for understanding if a lecture/talk is landing or landing flat

Gathering feedback at remote or in-person lectures using fist to five

I took a seminar last year with a professional coach named Patrick. We were all remote, so of course, most people had their cameras off. The ones that did have their cameras on were obviously paying attention to other things.

The first thing Patrick did, was call people to attention. Patrick was not afraid to ask the attendees to turn their cameras on or leave. He explained something like, “I really need to see your faces, because when I can see your faces, I can understand if you have a question, are confused, are following along, or even are just bored. This isn’t a judgment on you, this allows me to better serve you, to figure out if I need to change what I’m saying.”

A few people left.

Most of the people turned their cameras on or put away what they were doing an engaged.

From there, everything he said was deeply interesting to me.

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I’ve been volunteer teaching computer science the last two years. I’m remote, in Pittsburgh, but my class is in Florida. I get camera fatigue. The students get camera fatigue. I have a hard time doing what Patrick did. But, I feel student engagement when their cameras are on and I address them directly. They perk up. Even at 7:30AM (yes, CS at 7:30AM!?).

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I really want to thank the folks who did my Code.Org AP-CSP training over the summer. As a volunteer, I was able to get free PD with a group of fantastic teachers, all with different backgrounds and experiences. I felt at home, contributed, and took away so much. I felt confident in my amazing leadership, mentoring, and software experience. I felt humbled by the professional teachers and what they shared.

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In thinking through engagement, I often talk about the luxury of the volunteer being able to coach 1:1. —But…. When you don’t have that luxury:

I gave a number of lectures this year for AP-CSP. Each time, I actively worked to get students to turn on their cameras and engage directly. I tried to put the students at ease and show them I made mistakes and never ever ever shame them.

I think the thing I appreciate most from the PD was fist-of-five. Fist of five is a quick way for a teacher to get feedback. The instructor asks students to hold up their hands with a fist, 0 fingers extended, being “I don’t understand.” 5 fingers extended meant “I can teach this to the class—I’m confident.”

I really loved getting 0’s and 1’s because it showed me I needed to redirect and simplify or relate the material differently to the students. It also showed me who I should work with after the lecture.

This came up in my Microsoft TEALS training, but it was delivered as a lecture and honestly, it didn’t stick—I didn’t use it in my first year of teaching. In the Code.org PD, we actually taught lessons from the AP-CSP curriculum to our other teachers. We used Fist-To-Five as a technique for understanding if our students were able to follow. If they were not, we could provide another example or dig for ways to help the student understand.

One note: when I go out on the internet and search for Fist of Five, 4 out of 5 examples are from agile software development, something I consider myself expert in, but separate from teaching.

Second note: I love that fist of five is an explicit ask of, “how confident do you feel?” While feelings sometimes point in the wrong direction, they are the fundamental way in which we choose to divide our time.