Classroom Strategies That Work

Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers Helping Students Activate Prior Knowledge

Question Rotation

What Are You Thinking About Questioning T What do I think about questioning? W What do I need to know to support or challenge my thinking ? L What have I learned?

Lower Order Questioning To recall verbatim material previously read or taught Cannot use lower cognitive questions as evidence of content mastery, because it does not prove content mastery

Higher Order Questioning Ask the student to mentally manipulate bits of information previously learned to create an answer or to support an answer with logically reasoned evidence. Higher-order questions in an open-ended and nurturing educational environment creates more synapses. Questioning generates lateral thinking.

Current Brain Research

Key Findings Learning increases when teachers focus their questions on content that is most important, not what they think will be most interesting to students. Higher-level questions that ask students to analyze information result in more learning than simply asking students to recall information.

Question Prompts for Engaging Students in Higher Order Thinking BloomMarzano Knowledge List, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where (how and why are not included here) Comprehension Summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend Comparison How are things alike and different Application Apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover Classification Into what groups could you organize Defining characteristics of each group

Analysis Analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer Induction Based on observation, what can you conclude Synthesis Combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, what if?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize, rewrite Deduction Based on generalizations, what prediction can you make? If something has happened, what do you know must have occurred Evaluation Evaluate, assess, describe, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summarize Error Analysis What are the errors in reasoning How is this information misleading Constructing Support What is an argument to support this claim Abstraction What is the general pattern underlying this information ? Analyzing Perspectives What is an alternative perspective

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy Digital Map

Question Rotation Retake

Increasing Wait Time Difficult to increase Uncomfortable Explain Experiment

Wait Time Most instructors allow their students less than one second of wait-time. When wait-time is increased to three to five seconds: Number of student responses increases Incidence of non-response decreases. More evidence in support of responses More speculative thoughts More complex answers Confidence increases Student-to-student interactions increase Conversational sequences/interchanges increase

Wait Time Activity

What To Do When Students Don’t Respond Repeat Rephrase Simplify Ask another student to rephrase Break down into its component parts Make more specific Clarify the difficulty After each of the above alternatives, it is recommended that you allow another 5-10 seconds wait-time.

Analyzing Questions Compare an oak tree to a dogwood tree Predict what would have happen if drought conditions in the Piedmont section of NC into the early Fall of last year. Choose which “season” is the best.

Question Analysis Activity 1-Examine the questions. 2-Determine what follow-up questions should be asked. 3-Identify what instruction must take place in order for students to be able to answer those questions or what pre-requisite skills must be in place.

Cues Helping Students Activate Prior Knowledge

Advance Organizers Helping Students Activate Prior Knowledge 105

What Are You Thinking About Questioning Retake T What do I think about questioning? W What do I need to know to support or challenge my thinking ? L What have I learned?

KWLQ K What do I know? W What do I want to know? L What did I learn? Q What questions do I still have?

What Am I Thinking Now? T What do I think? W What do I need to know to support or challenge my thinking? L What did I learn? Q What questions do I still have? W Where can I find the answer?

Expository Advance Organizer Straightforward descriptions of new content emphasizing important content prepares students for what they will learn

Expository Advance Organizer

Creating a Classroom Climate to Support Questioning When students are not used to having an instructor give them sufficient wait-time, they may not immediately take advantage of the opportunity to think, respond, or ask questions.

Creating a Classroom Climate to Support Questioning Students, much like their instructors, may at first be uncomfortable with the added seconds of silence. It may be a good idea to tell students that you are experimenting with giving them more time to think and respond to your questions. Letting students know the purpose of any changes you plan to make in the classroom or in your teaching behavior helps orient students to the change.

The Science and Art of Teaching…. Number off 1-2 Ten minutes to read and write summary Move to the Music Person 1 Shares Summary for 2 Minutes Person 2 Shares Summary for 2 Minutes

Steps to Implementation Research Read Practice Analyze Evaluate Reflect on student impact

Synonyms Questions/Cues and Advance Organizers Questions/Cues Prompts Hints Clues Previews Scans Glimpses Advance Organizers Preview Anticipatory set Outline Peek Hint Overview

Jot it Down

Classroom Strategies That Work