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Teaching Tips & Tricks, Uncategorized   |   Apr 12, 2014

A bright idea for responding when kids say “I don’t know”

By Angela Watson

Founder and Writer

A bright idea for responding when kids say “I don’t know”

By Angela Watson

Sometimes an “I don’t know” comes from a child waving his or hand wildly, desperate to be called on, only to be at a loss for words once acknowledged. Sometimes you hear “I don’t know” because the child is shy, embarrassed to talk, or unsure of the answer. And sometimes “I don’t know” is said when a child is frustrated or disinterested and just doesn’t want to engage.

One secret I’ve learned is that kids usually do know something about the topic that they’re willing to share: you just have to jog their memory and help them respond with confidence. If you can get students to say something, you can guide them to figure out the answer.

A bright idea for responding when kids say “I don’t know”

So how do you get them talking? I learned years ago from an education professor that an encouraging smile and one simple phrase often does the trick:

If you did know, what would you say?

It sounds like a trick question, but you will be amazed at how well this works! The student is no longer under pressure to come up with a correct response right away, and instead can remove him or herself from the situation and think hypothetically.

Many times, kids will actually respond to you with the correct answer! They knew it all along, but were afraid to say it and second-guessing themselves.

Other times, they respond with, “I dunno, maybe I’d say something about ___” or “I’d probably say ___, but I don’t know ___.” Both of those responses give you valuable insight into kids’ thought processes and give you something to work with. You can then say, Tell me more about that or What else do you know about that? You can also follow up with topic-specific questions, providing some of the missing information or vocabulary the child needs to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Variations on this include:

  • I understand you don’t know. What would you say if you did know?
  • What part do you know for sure?
  • Pretend you had a choice of answers: which one would you pick?
  • What would be your best guess if you did know?
  • What are the possibilities?
  • If you did have an idea, what would it be?

I’d love to hear how you respond when students say “I don’t know”–please share your strategies in the comments. And if you haven’t tried the responses in this post, give one of them a shot with your students this week and let us know how it goes!

april-bright-ideas-blog-hop

For more bright ideas from 150 different bloggers, please browse through the link-up below and choose a topic that interests you. What makes this link-up unique is that none of these posts have products or printables of any kind, just practical classroom solutions. The grade levels for each are listed in the post titles. Enjoy!

april-bright-ideas

Plus over a hundred more posts! Click to see the link up!

Angela Watson

Founder and Writer

Angela created the first version of this site in 2003, when she was a classroom teacher herself. With 11 years of teaching experience and more than a decade of experience as an instructional coach, Angela oversees and contributes regularly to...
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Discussion


  1. Hi Angela, thanks so much for sharing your tips and tools. I’m currently a student teacher in a first grade classroom and I have a student in the class who replies with “I don’t know” most of the time, even though students turn and talk with a partner. This pin came up on my Pinterest board yesterday and I couldn’t wait to try it. Today, I was able to use it and it really works!!! He was able to give a response!!! Thank you :)))

  2. I know this may sound confrontative but it can also be important to be able to say, “I don’t know”. One child I knew would never say, “I don’t know”, making up outlandish responses. As I got to know her mother she was the same; she could never admit to not knowing something. She would rather make things up or more often speculate wildly than say, “I don’t know”. It was particularly problematic when it came to understanding others. I understand that sometimes kids need encouragement to offer their ideas, thoughts, feelings but helping children to understand when it is important to say, “I don’t know” is equally valuable.

  3. A young ADHD girl I’m working with, had been asked by the school about new year and a new start as he r behaviour was a little disruptive. She was at risk of absconding and all sorts. I mentioned to the support person that maybe she couldn’t actually understand what was being asked of her.
    Working with horses we looked at their fresh starts, some of our horses had been abandoned, cruelly treated and had come to us for a new start.
    We asked the young girl about what that looks like through the horse’s eyes, we had lots and lots of words such as scarey, worried, apprehensive etc and she came up with I don’t know. Instead of tackling her I praised her (much to her surprise). I said yep if I was that horse I wouldn’t know what to expect either. She then proceeded as to other things that the horse would not know,
    ‘I don’t know how to trust’
    ‘I don’t know if I will be fed’
    ‘I don’t know if someone cares’
    Job done!

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