Questioning Techniques

Effective Question Practice Asking fewer questions to stay focused Differentiating questions Questioning for depth Questioning for breadth Using wait time Selecting students Repeating or rephrasing students’ answers Giving useful feedback Student-initiated contest

Working with Special Students Break questions down to sub-questions. Paraphrase questions. Relate questions to students’ prior knowledge. Let them identify information. Provide them with cheat-sheet information. Use true-false, multiple-choice question formats. Provide clues. Pair or team students up.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Knowledge Comprehension Application Synthesis Analysis Evaluation

Types of Questions Factual information/ memorization Understanding (What has happened? What does it mean? Why? How?) Interpretations and inferences Opinion Critical thinking Creative thinking

Strategies Relate questions to students’ prior knowledge and experience. Don’t just ask a question to one student and decide if the whole class know the answer. Provide students with cues. Let students help out. Scaffolding

When Not To Use Questions To manage misbehavior To help special needs students To put down a student To offer information (yes, but….) To promote student involvement

Examples – Comprehension Qs What is the main idea that this chapter presents? Describe in your own words what the artist is trying to say in this cartoon.

Examples – Application Qs In each of the following cases, which of Newton’s laws is being demonstrated? According to our definition of socialism, which of the following nations would be considered socialist today? Write an example of the sexual harassment policy we have just discussed. If Brian works 3 hours to wash the car and it takes Alicia only two, how many hours would it take them to wash the car together?

Examples – Analysis Qs After reading this story, how would you characterize the author’s background attitude and point of view? What factors influence the writings of Anne Frank? How did the role play promote cultural understanding? What evidence can you cite to validate that smoking cigarettes is more harmful than drinking alcohol?

What would a descriptive and exciting name for this video game? Write an to a local newspaper editor on a social issue of concern to you. What would the US be like if the South had won the Civil War? How would you measure the height of a building without being able to go into it? Design a musical instrument that effectively demonstrates three principles of physics. Examples – Synthesis Qs

Decide why young children should or should not be allowed to read any book they want. How do you assess your performance at school? Give three reasons that support why this picture is your best. Which U.S. senator is the most effective and why? Taking the role of cultural critic for your local public radio station, offer reviews of three current movies. Examples – Evaluation Qs

Crack the codes to figure out the sentence Write a secret message in the number codes on the board: “Can you read the message?” The message is “I love you.” What is the number code message for the following sentence? “The doctor took an x-ray of his arm to see if it is broken.” There are 26 alphabets in English.

Talk and write math out loud To solve a math problem, ask students to explain their thinking and justify their answers in writing. Organize students in groups of three or four. Students will take turns to be speakers and listeners. They discuss and contribute ideas to solve problems. Robyn Silbey (April, 2003, Instructor magazine) suggests effective questioning strategies to promote critical thinking about the “big ideas” in mathematics. These questions are as follows:

Talk and write math out loud-2 What do you need to know? What do you need to find out? (Students are invited to pinpoint the problem and the information needed for its solution.) How can you choose a strategy that will help you solve the problem? (Students peruse their strategies to match the needs of the problem.) Which strategy did you choose? Why? (Students justify their choice of strategy by describing how it addresses the conditions of the problem.)

Talk and write math out loud-3 What will you do first to solve the problem? What will you do next? (Students make sense of how each step works toward finding the solution.) How did you solve the problem? (Students define the steps they chose to solve the problem.) How will you check your answer for reasonableness? (Checking strategies may include using inverse operations or estimation.) How do you know the answer makes sense? (Students justify their answers using common sense, logical reasoning, or estimation strategies.)