Pose, Pause, Pounce, Bounce

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Participation & Equity in 04 Questioning & Discussion, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.

Why you might use it

The problem it may help with

Wiliam's pose, pause, pounce, bounce packages several of this strand's strategies into one questioning routine: pose the question to everyone, hold the silence, direct it to a named student, then bounce the answer to a second student to extend or challenge.

The bounce is the distinctive move. Because an answer may arrive at anyone, everyone has a reason to listen to it; the card describes it as keeping all students alert and spreading thinking across the whole room.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

What was the turning point in this experiment? Pause, while everyone thinks. Then: Jacob? Jacob answers. The teacher does not evaluate, but bounces it: Priya, would you add anything to Jacob's reason, or push back on it? The judgement that would normally come from the front comes instead from the room.

Try it

A way to begin

Script one question through all four steps for tomorrow, including who you might pounce to and who you might bounce to. Improvising the routine comes later; start deliberate.

What to notice

Reading what happens

• Listening during and after the first answer, now that it might land on anyone.
• The quality of the bounced response compared with the first answer.
• Whether you are pausing for long enough. Without the pause, the pounce becomes a speed test.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

• Bouncing a wrong answer to another student needs the no-threat climate to be real first, or the first student pays for the routine.
• The pause is wait time 1 doing its usual work; the routine inherits everything Rowe found about it.

Related strategies

Where this connects

• ⏰ Wait Time 1: After You Ask Rowe found most teachers wait under one second before speaking. Extending to three seconds increases the length and complexity of responses. Silence is thinking, not a gap to fill. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Wait Time & Thinking Space
• ✋ Hands Down Wiliam shows hand-raising distorts who answers. A small group volunteers repeatedly; the rest disengage. Remove hands and direct to named students. Every student should be asked. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Participation & Equity
• 🔁 Build on Student Responses Alexander’s EEF programme showed gains when teachers extended rather than evaluated. Return an answer: Aisha says X. Does anyone want to add or challenge? Conductor, not judge. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Dialogic Teaching & Discussion
• 🎲 Cold Call Without Threat Good and Brophy showed differential questioning reinforces attainment gaps. Direct questions are equitable only when the climate supports it. Norms: no wrong attempts, only thinking. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Participation & Equity

Inclusive practice

The lens this connects with

Through the inclusive practice lens, this is one of the approaches that may reduce barriers around:

• Participation and response

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

The routine is Wiliam's, from the same body of formative assessment work as hands down; Rowe's wait time research explains why the pause is not optional. The card’s attribution stands as published: Wiliam.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Questioning & Discussion.