Questioning Teacher provides focused feedback and questions to students that :

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QuestioningTeacher provides focused feedback and
questions to students that

• Activate prior knowledge
• Probe students conceptual understanding
• Lead to deeper understanding

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What do you know about questioning techniques

• Give one get one 2 minutes to think 2 minutes
  to share
• Under Give one write
• What do you know about questioning strategies
• What problems do you have with questioning in
  your classroom
• Under Get one write two new things you learn
  from two other partners.

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Why Questioning Matters

• Instruction which includes posing questions
  during lessons is more effective in producing
  achievement gains than instruction carried out
  without questioning students.
• Oral questions posed during classroom recitations
  are more effective in fostering learning than are
  written questions.
• Questions which focus student attention on the
  most important points of the lesson result in
  better comprehension than questions which do not.
• Questioning makes student thinking visible and
  provides immediate feedback to the teacher.

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Question their background knowledge first!

• Guide students from the known to the unknown
• Use cues questions and organizers to set the
  stage for learning
• Before new knowledge can be incorporated into
  students existing schema the schema must be
  activated
• Start by asking what students already know
• Focus on content that is most important not on
  what students will find most interesting
  (hopefully you can make important content
  interesting!)
• You can discover and clear up misconceptions by
  taking time to ask questions before you begin a
  unit of study!

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Hook their interest! Make questions an itch
not a scratch

• Odd fact anomaly counterintuitive example
• Provocative entry question
• Mystery
• Challenge
• Problem or issue
• Experimentpredict outcome
• Role-play or simulation
• Personal experiences
• Emotional connection
• Humor

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Making Hooks hookier

• How does a peer group influence the beliefs and
  actions of early adolescents
• Was Gorbachev a hero or a traitor to this
  country
• How do the structure and behavior patterns of
  insects help them survive

• Who do some people act stupid when they are in
  groups
• Who blew it
• What good is a bug

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The goal in design is neither to pander to the
students likes nor to cause them to fear bad
results. The design challenge is to tap
intrinsic motivation more effectively. As Bruner
put it long ago The best way to create interest
in a subject is to render it worth knowing which
means to make the knowledge gained usable in
ones thinking beyond the situation in which
learning has occurred. Understanding by
Design Wiggins McTighe
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Todays Essential Question

• How do students benefit when questioning is used
  as an instructional strategy
• How can teachers improve the use of questioning
  strategies

• If students dont like answering questions why
  should we ask them
• How can I get my students to answer questions
  without violating the Geneva Convention

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Fat v. Skinny Questions
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Fat Questions

• Higher cognitive questions
• require students to take knowledge and/or skills
  they have learned and manipulate that information
  to create an answer or to support an answer with
  logically reasoned evidence.
• Fat questions are also called
• Open ended (no definite answer)
• Interpretive
• Evaluative
• Inquiry
• Inferential
• Synthesis

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Skinny Questions

• Lower Cognitive questions
• Recall verbatim or in students own words
  material previously read or taught by the teacher
• Skinny questions are also called
• Fact
• Closed (only one right answer)
• Direct
• Recall
• Knowledge

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What kind of question is used most

• 60 lower cognitive
• 20 higher cognitive
• 20 procedural

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Should All questions be Fat

• Skinny question more effective when teacher
  wants to give factual knowledge and help students
  commit those facts to memory
• If using skinny question level of difficulty
  should elicit correct responses
• In classes above primary level a mix of fat
  and skinny questions is superior to exclusive
  use of one or the other.

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Benefits of Higher Cognitive Questions

• Using more than 20 produces superior
  learning gains for secondary students
• Using 50 increases
• On-task behavior
• Length of student responses
• Number of relevant contributions volunteered by
  students
• Number of student-to-student interactions
• Student use of complete sentences
• Speculative thinking on the part of students
• Relevant questions posed by students
• Teacher expectations about student abilities
  especially for students regarded as slow or poor
  learners

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Teach students to write different Levels of
Questions

• In the text
• Right there! You can put your finger on the
  place in the text where the answer is found.
• Pulling it together You have to put the answer
  together using different parts of the text.
• In my mind
• On my own The answer is not in the text but
  reading the text will help you know how to
  answer.
• Author me You have to answer by combining
  what you find in the text with what you already
  know. (For more advanced students)

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Concept Question Chain

• Select an important concept or theme from text
• Write a chain of questions about this concept of
  theme that include
• Right there
• Think and Search
• On My Own
• After students have read and written answers
  lead a discussion of the questions.
• Follow up with a performance task that
  demonstrates their understanding.

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Discussion Web

• Students read and think individually
• Students compare thinking with a partner
• Partners pair up with another set of partners and
  groups of four compare thinking and discuss.
• Call on a spokesperson from each group to share
  the groups thinking
• Open topic up for further discussion whole group

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Discussion Web
Really Jacks things anyway Giant was mean Jack
didnt think he was stealing Hed be richer He
his mother had nothing left
Made giant mad Wrong to steal go to jail Giant
had possession of his stuff Jack got
trapped Didnt ask permission
Reasons
Was it all right for Jack to take things from the
giants castle
No
Yes
Conclusion
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Questioning techniques

• Knowledge Eliciting factual answers testing
  recall and recognition
• Comprehension translating interpreting and
  extrapolating
• Application to situations that are new
  unfamiliar or have a new slant for students
• Analysis breaking down into parts forms
• Synthesis Combining elements into a pattern not
  clearly there before
• Evaluation According to some set criteria and
  state why

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Knowledge

• What do you remember about . . .
• How would you define . . .
• How would you identify . . .
• How would you recognize . . .
• Describe what happens when . . .
• How Where Who Why What When

Stop and write a knowledge question you could use
in tomorrows lesson.
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Comprehension

• How would you compare Contrast
• How would you clarify the meaning
• How would you differentiate between
• How would you generalize
• How would you express
• What can you infer from
• What did you observe
• How would you identify
• Elaborate
• What would happen if

Stop and write a comprehension question you could
use in tomorrows lesson.
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Application

• What actions would you take to perform
• How would you developto present
• What other way would you choose to
• What would the result be if
• How would you demonstrate
• How would you present
• How would you change.
• How would you modify
• How could you develop.
• Why does work

Stop and write an application question you could
use in tomorrows lesson.
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Analysis

• How can you classifyaccording to
• How can you compare the different parts
• What explanation do you have for
• How isconnected to
• Discuss the pros and cons of .
• How can you sort the parts.
• What is your analysis of
• What can you infer
• What ideas validate
• How would you explain
• What can you point out about

Stop and write an analysis question you could use
in tomorrows lesson.
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Synthesis

• What alternative would you suggest for
• What changes would you make to revise
• How would you explain the reason
• How would you generate a plan to
• What could you invent
• What facts can you gather
• Predict the outcome if
• What would happen if
• How would you portray
• Devise a way to
• How would you compile the facts for

Stop and write a synthesis question you could use
in tomorrows lesson.
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Evaluation

• What criteria would you use to assess
• What data was used to evaluate.
• What choice would you have made.
• How would you determine the facts.
• What is the most important.
• What would you suggest.
• How would you grade.
• What is your opinion of.
• How could you verify.
• What information would you use to prioritize
• Rate the

Stop and write an evaluation question you could
use in tomorrows lesson.
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Another way to classify questions

• Core questions
• Cue direct thought experience
• Focus on
• Observation
• Recall
• Compare/contrast
• Grouping
• Labeling
• Classifying
• Predicting
• Sequencing
• Inferring

• Processing questions
• Narrow focus of discussion
• Elicit a variety of responses from different
  students
• Let students give evidence for their ideas
• Help students create relationships between ideas
  and evidence

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Wait-time

• Average wait time teachers allow after posing a
  question is one second or less
• Students whom teachers perceive as slow or poor
  learners are given less wait-time than students
  teachers perceive as more capable
• For lower cognitive questions successful wait
  time is 3 seconds
• For higher cognitive questions the more wait time
  teachers give the more engaged students become
  and the better they perform

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For students 3 seconds wait time

• Improves achievement
• Improves retention
• Increases number of higher cognitive responses
• Increases length of responses
• Increases number of unsolicited responses
• Decreases failure to respond
• Increases amount of quality evidence used to
  support inferences
• Expands variety of responses
• Increases student-to-student interactions
• Increases number of questions posed by students

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And for teachers 3 second wait time

• Increases flexibility of teacher responses
  (teachers listen more and engage students in more
  discussions)
• Increases expectations for students usually
  perceived as slow
• Expands the variety of questions asked
• Increases number of higher cognitive questions
  asked

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How to respond to student answers

• Use student responses to form your next question
  and narrow the focus of the discussion
• Probing questions help you know how deeply the
  student is thinking
• Teacher redirection and probing help student
  achievement when they focus on clarity accuracy
  plausibility of student responses.

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How do students feel about questions

• Generally fear them which stops learning
• We usually only ask a 2nd question when the first
  response was wrong students have an aversion to
  the 2nd question
• If redirection/probing are vague or critical
  (Thats not right try again Where did you
  get an idea like that) students may not
  continue to respond and achievement does not
  improve.

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Your response to their answers will determine
whether or not they continue to answer!

• Acknowledge correct responses
• Listen carefully to student responses!
• Praise of student responses should be sincere and
  credible and should be used sparingly.
• Establish community where all answers are
  accepted as a gift model this for
  your students

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Teach students how to state their opinions
civic discourse

• I think I feel I believe . . .
• Support with reasons facts details
• Use reasonable tone of voice good manners

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Dont Forget

• Ask questions that focus on most important
  elements of the lesson
• Ask questions before and after material is read
  and studied
• Scaffold lower ability students ask lower
  cognitive questions gradually transitioning to
  higher cognitive questions. Ensure student
  success during questioning experiences.
• Teach students strategies for making inferences.
• 3 seconds for lower cognitive questions
• More than 3 seconds for higher cognitive
  questions
• Allow generous wait time for lower ability
  students

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Teaching inference making

• Model first
• Ask an inference question
• Answer it
• Find clues in the text to support the inference
• Tell how to get from the clues to the answer
• Have students practice with simple text
• Gradually have students make inferences with more
  difficult text

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Use the WASL stems document to help you know what
kinds of questions students will need to handle
on the WASL

• http//www.k12.wa.us/assessment/WASL/Readingpubdoc
  s/WASL67810.xls

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Classroom Questioning

• School Improvement Series Close-up 5 by
  Kathleen Cotton http//www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/3/c
  u5.html
• Mentoring Minds Critical Thinking Wheel developed
  by Michael L. Lujan.
• Haynes Judy. How to develop questioning
  strategies. everythingESL.net 2004 4/12/07.
  http//www.everytingesl.net/inserivdes/
• questioning_strategies.php

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Self-reflection

• Review todays essential questions
• How do students benefit when questioning is used
  as an instructional strategy
• How can teachers improve the use of questioning
  strategies
• Fill out Taking Action sheet to reflect on what
  you learned.