“I get one-word answers or shrugs”

A one-word answer does the job the exchange asks of it. Saying more means holding a thought, finding the words, and speaking them in front of an audience; one word gets the question answered with less effort and less exposure. The routine then rewards it: you accept the word, expand it into the full answer yourself, and move on, so the elaborating still happens, but you are doing it. None of this is defiance. Many students have the idea but not the sentence, because saying more aloud is a skill nobody has taught them.

It persists because it is easy on everyone. Pressing for more risks a stalled silence in front of the class, and finishing the thought yourself is quicker and feels kinder. The student stays safe, the lesson keeps moving, and nothing forces a change. The techniques below work at two points in the exchange: some prepare the ground before anyone speaks, with thinking time, sentence starters and shared expectations of what a full answer sounds like; others change what happens after the word arrives, asking the student for more, or for the same idea said again in a better sentence.