Questioning Techniques Sandy Macut SC High School Principal

Today’s Essential Questions How do students benefit when questioning is used as an instructional strategy? How can teachers improve the use of questioning strategies? If students don’t like answering questions why should we ask them? How can I get my students to answer questions without violating the Geneva Convention?

Why do you ask questions? 47% managerial 43% informational 10% higher-order National Educational Service

Questioning Teacher provides focused feedback and questions to students that :  Activate prior knowledge  Probe students’ conceptual understanding  Lead to deeper understanding

Progressing from simple questions to more difficult ones that require reasoning helps students develop cognitive abilities and critical thinking skills. (Kappa Delta Pi, Fall 2005)

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.

What Are Good Questions? They help students make sense of the content/topic. They are open-ended, whether in answer or approach. There may be multiple answers or multiple approaches. They empower students to unravel their misconceptions. They not only require the application of facts and procedures but encourage students to make connections and generalizations. They are accessible to all students in their language and offer an entry point for all students. Their answers lead students to wonder more about a topic and to perhaps construct new questions themselves as they investigate this newly found interest.

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 student’s 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!

Creating Evaluating Analysing Applying Understanding Remembering BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY Creating Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing. Evaluating Justifying a decision or course of action Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging Analysing Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships Comparing, organizing, deconstructing, interrogating, finding Applying Using information in another familiar situation Implementing, carrying out, using, executing Understanding Explaining ideas or concepts Interpreting, summarizing, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining Remembering Recalling information Recognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding

Webb’s Depth of Knowledge are:

DOK Webb's Depth of Knowledge Depth of Knowledge is the degree of depth or complexity of knowledge standards and assessments require; this criterion is met if the assessment is as demanding cognitively as the expectations standards are set for students. DOK is NOT.....about Verbs - Verbs are not always used appropriately. about "difficulty" - It is not about the student or level of difficulty for the student - it requires looking at the assessment item not student work in order to determine the level. DOK is about the item/standard - not the student. DOK is....about what FOLLOWS the verb. What comes after the verb is more important than the verb itself. It is about the complexity of mental processing that must occur to answer a question. Remember DOK...Descriptive, not a taxonomy Focuses on how deeply the student has to know the content in order to respond. Not the same as difficulty.

Handouts Hess’ Cognitive Rigor Matrix & Curricular Examples: Applying Webb’s Depth-of-Knowledge Levels to Bloom’s Cognitive Process Dimensions – Reading Hess’ Cognitive Rigor Matrix & Curricular Examples: Applying Webb’s Depth-of-Knowledge Levels to Bloom’s Cognitive Process Dimensions - Writing

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

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

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

Research by the Department of Labor says students spend… 22% reading and writing 23% speaking 55% listening A question is useless if you do not LISTEN carefully to the response. IT IS WHAT YOU DO WITH THE RESPONSE THAT COUNTS!

Effective Questioning To be an effective questioner, it is better to use the student’s response to guide your next question than to use your question to guide the student’s response.

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.

How do students feel about questions? Generally they fear them, which stops learning We usually only ask a 2 nd question when the first response was wrong = students have an aversion to the 2 nd question If redirection/probing are vague or critical (“That’s not right; try again”; “Where did you get an idea like that?”) students may not continue to respond and achievement does not improve.

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

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

Don’t 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

Self-reflection Review today’s essential questions: How do students benefit when questioning is used as an instructional strategy? How can teachers improve the use of questioning strategies?

Classroom Questioning Article “School Improvement Series” Close-up #5 by Kathleen Cotton