Stretch the Answer
When an answer is right, ask a follow-up question and push the thinking further
Use this when
What is it?
Stretch the Answer means responding to a correct answer with a follow-up question: why, how do you know, what if, give me another example. Explaining or applying an idea tends to build more understanding than stating it once, so the follow-up draws a second round of thinking from a question you had already asked. Over a term, students learn that a right answer in your room is usually followed by another question.
The steps
- Learn a small repertoire of follow-up questions. Five moves cover most answers: "Why?", "How do you know?", "What if…?", "Give me another example", and "Connect it to what we did before". Keep the list in your planner until the moves come to mind mid-lesson.
- Confirm the answer before you stretch it. Tell the student plainly that the answer is right. If the confirmation is faint, the follow-up question can sound like doubt, and students begin to second-guess correct answers.Correct, it's a metaphor. Now what is that metaphor doing in the poem?
- Ask one follow-up question, matched to the answer. Ask for reasoning after a claim. Ask for a fresh example after a definition. After a method, ask "what if" and change one condition.
- Hold the silence again. The follow-up question is harder than the first, so give it at least three seconds of quiet, and often longer (Wait Time).
- Stretch your strongest students as a matter of routine. A fast, correct answer usually means the question was too small for that student. The follow-up question gives them challenge without any extra planning from you.Too easy for you. Give me an example where the rule breaks.
- Sometimes hand the follow-up question to the whole class. When one student's answer opens up a question worth everyone's time, spread it:Amal says the current will drop. Thirty seconds with your partner: is she right?A good stretch can feed straight into Turn & Talk or Everybody Writes.
What it looks like
Mrs Calder's class of 14-year-olds is studying the outbreak of the First World War. "Why did Britain declare war in 1914?" Tom answers: "Because Germany invaded Belgium." "Right. And why did Belgium matter so much to Britain?" "They'd signed a treaty saying they'd protect it." "Good. So if Germany had reached France without touching Belgium, does Britain stay out?"
Tom begins a sentence twice and stalls; the question is too big. She narrows it: "Think about the Channel ports. What is Britain afraid of?" "Germany just across the water… controlling the coast?" "So was Belgium the reason, or the trigger?" "The trigger. The real reason was Germany getting too strong." She writes the sentence on the board and labels it: causes versus triggers.
How you’ll know it’s working
- Record ten minutes of questioning: at least half of the correct answers are followed by another question.
- Students begin to justify before they are asked, adding "because…" to their first answers.
- Second answers are longer than first answers and carry the language of reasoning: because, so, unless, whereas.
- Your strongest students are stretched as often as anyone else, and they visibly expect it.
Pitfalls & fixes
- Stretching a wrong answer. Every follow-up question assumes the first answer was sound. If it was wrong, correct it; if it was only half-right, use All the Way Right instead.
- Skipping the confirmation. In most classrooms a bare "Why?" after an answer is heard as "you're wrong", and students will trade a correct answer for a worse one. Confirm first, every time.
- Chaining question after question on one student. Two follow-ups read as interest; by the fifth, the exchange has turned into an interrogation. Stop while it still feels like a conversation, and send the next question elsewhere.
- Asking "why?" every time. A single reflexive move teaches students to keep a stock justification ready. Rotate the repertoire; "give me another example" and "what if" reach thinking that "why" does not.
Weigh it up
Why it’s worth it
- Your strongest students get genuine challenge within the normal flow of the lesson. The follow-up question matches the demand to the student, with nothing extra to plan or photocopy.
- Explaining why an answer is true helps it stick. The research on elaborative interrogation supports this family of "why" questions, so the stretch doubles as memory practice.
- It tells you whether a right answer rests on understanding or on luck. "How do you know?" surfaces guesswork on the spot, while there is still time to reteach.
- "What if" and "connect it" questions ask students to use an idea outside the context in which they met it, which is the kind of practice that transfer requires.
- Over a term the class learns that thinking continues after a right answer, and coasting on quick answers becomes harder.
The costs
- Every stretch lengthens an exchange, and a lesson full of them noticeably slows the pace. Choose the answers that will repay the time.
- The spotlight stays on one student for longer. Without the trust that Cold Call also depends on, some students may experience the extra questions as pressure.
- Composing good follow-up questions live is a genuine skill. Early attempts tend to come out vague, vague questions get vague answers, and the repertoire takes weeks to become automatic.
Adaptations
- Early years / lower primary: one move is plenty. Ask "how do you know?" warmly, accept pointing and props as evidence, and keep the exchange under a minute.
- Primary: put the five moves on the wall. Children can begin asking them of each other in pairs during Turn & Talk.
- Secondary / post-16: phrase the moves in the language of the discipline: "what's your evidence?" in history, "does it always hold?" in maths, "what would change your mind?" in science. At post-16, hand the repertoire to the students and let seminar discussion run on it.
- Maths and practical subjects: stretch by changing one condition. "Same method, but the tank is now half full." "Show me the same pass with your weaker foot."
Where this comes from
Doug Lemov codified this family of follow-up questions as "Stretch It" in Teach Like a Champion, although the habit itself is much older: strong questioners in every tradition have followed right answers with harder questions. The nearest research, on elaborative interrogation, supports the "why" questions specifically; the full classroom routine has not been trialled as a package.
Sources
Related techniques
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