Room to learnTeaching & learning
7 practices · 2 case practices
Rehearse responses to mistakes, requests for help, and disagreements in class.
Learning goes better when mistakes feel safe to make. These scenarios rehearse how to respond when a student gets an answer wrong, hasn’t started, asks for help, or disagrees with you.
Some are written from the student’s side, such as asking a teacher for help.
Situations you can practice
Every practice is a written scenario. Case practices add a file to investigate before you decide what to say.
Two students in your class laugh at a wrong fraction answer
Jordan says, “I’m just stupid at this.” Stop the laughter, then look at Jordan’s reasoning without making Jordan perform for the class.
8 minFoundationsSoulful
A student hasn’t started writing and asks for a zero
Read today’s notes and Alex’s recent work to see what is most likely in the way, then check in quietly and offer two ways to begin.
13 minStretchCase practiceSoulful
Asking your teacher for help with 3x + 5 = 17
An adult exercise from a learner’s view. Show the step you tried and ask what to do with the five, without asking for the answer.
8 minStretchSoulful
A student says they didn’t mean to interrupt you
You told Taylor off during a class discussion. Admit you assumed it was deliberate, and agree on a clearer way to take turns.
11 minDeep practiceSoulful
Spotting which master’s student is lost in the discussion half
Read your notes on each student, work out who is struggling and who only looks it, then invite that student to your office without singling them out.
15 minStretchCase practiceSoulful
A student must go home for three weeks to care for his father
Tell Amin what he can follow online, how the lab he’ll miss can be made up, and when you can talk each week, without asking for more than he shared.
8 minFoundationsSoulful
A first-year asks why the class needs a topic he won’t use
Answer Haziq honestly about how much of the exam it is, then let the class find where they might use it before you add your own example.
8 minFoundationsSoulful
Read more on teaching & learning
What to say after a student gets it wrongWhat to say after a student gives a wrong answer: respond to the reasoning, handle a groan from the class, and offer a private way to show their thinking.What to say when a student hasn’t started the workA quiet check-in for a student with a blank page: guess the likeliest obstacle from what you already know, let them correct you, and offer two ways to begin.The research behind these practices
Each practice cites the studies that informed its design and says where they may not apply. These are the sources cited most across the 7 practices on this page; they inform the practices and are not proof that the practices work.
- Self-determination-based interventions in education (Systematic review and meta-analysis, 2024). Cited by 4 practices here.
The review examines educational interventions supporting autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Effects vary by design and setting; classroom scenarios here are practical adaptations, not validated interventions.
- The Power of Feedback Revisited (Meta-analysis · educational feedback, 2020). Cited by 4 practices here.
This synthesis examines educational feedback across studies and outcomes. Feedback content and context matter; generic praise and feedback on specific work should not be treated as equivalent.
- Assessment and classroom learning (Research review · Assessment in Education, 1998). Cited by 2 practices here.
Black and Wiliam reviewed research on using evidence of what learners understand to adjust teaching, and concluded that it can raise achievement. Later critics questioned how consistently the effects hold and how they were measured. It supports noticing who is following before moving on; it does not test private follow-up messages.
- A systematic literature review on synchronous hybrid learning: gaps identified (Systematic review · 47 studies, 2020). Cited by 1 practice here.
Raes and colleagues reviewed 47 studies of classes where some students join remotely. They describe benefits such as flexibility, challenges for remote students and design principles, and note that evidence on learning outcomes is limited. It is a review of practice, not a test of a temporary arrangement for one student.
- Accuracy of teachers’ judgments of students’ academic achievement: a meta-analysis (Meta-analysis · Journal of Educational Psychology, 2012). Cited by 1 practice here.
Südkamp, Kaiser and Möller found that teachers’ judgments of achievement agree with test results only moderately, about .63 on average. It is a reason to check a reading of a student against evidence and with the student; it concerns achievement, not what stops a student starting a task.
- Closing achievement gaps with a utility-value intervention (Randomized experiment · 1,040 college students, 2016). Cited by 1 practice here.
Harackiewicz and colleagues had introductory biology students write about how the course related to their own lives. Over four semesters it raised grades, most for first-generation students from underrepresented groups. It was a written assignment, not a teacher’s spoken answer.
3 more sources are listed on the research page.
Limits
Effects of classroom practices differ by setting and age. Educational findings are not direct proof that these exercises improve teaching, and the scenarios are fictional.
Leetsoul has not shown that these practices improve skill in real life, and the original scenarios have not been independently tested. The sources inform the design of the exercises.
Begin teaching & learning with a free starter
Write your response to a fictional conversation, read the guidance, then decide what you would change. Three starter practices are free; Soulful opens the full library.
Written by Leetsoul. Updated . Scenarios are fictional.