1. ASKING BETTER QUESTIONS
Rationale-
(Share ours)
Part of two years of work related to “rigor” and rigorous classrooms
Rigor rubric
Also related to Common Core– and expectations associated with this initiative
Need for improvement in Domain 3b (questioning)- SEED – walk through feedback (high level of questioning, engagement, etc.)
Presented at Teachers’ Academy, District PD (Oct. 2011) and in several schools
Presentation is further enhanced
Most recently, presented to Academy of Aerospace & Engineering Middle– initial workshop for new staff and follow-up for returning staff
(Show Video- Jeff Moore- Rationale)

2. Schema Activator Think-Pair-Share:
Review the questions you have collected from teacher observations.
Reflect: Which ones do you consider to be “higher level”?
Pair & Share: Compare your questions with those of a colleague.
In actual workshop with teachers, they examine their own questions and re-write them at the end of the session.

3. Characteristics of Teachers Who Expect Students to Learn at High Levels
High Expectations
Challenging Curriculum
Instruction: High-level Questioning
Instruction: Differentiation and Multiple Intelligences

4. 4 Models of Questioning New Bloom’s Taxonomy
Ciardello’s Four Types of Questions
Quality QUESTIONS
Wierderhold Question Matrix
The purpose of reviewing these models is to show different ways that teachers evaluate the level of difficulty of the questions they develop.

5. New Bloom’s Taxonomy OLD NEW
Question– Compare the old Bloom’s to the new. How has it changed?
How does this affect questioning?
New Bloom’s focus on words becoming verbs that show action., which changes the focus of a question.
OLD NEW

6. Ciardiello’s Four Types of Questions
Question Types
Cognitive Operations
Memory
Naming, defining, identifying
Convergent Thinking
Explaining, comparing, contrasting
Divergent
Thinking
Predicting, hypothesizing, inferring
Evaluative Thinking
Valuing, judging, justifying, choices
Share difference between convergent (have an expected answer) and divergent (open-ended) types
Important- If you do not pre-plan the questioning, the majority of the questions asked will be convergent.
Cognitive Operations- are similar to the types of words seen in the new Bloom’s Taxonomy

7. CIARDIELLO BLOOM Question Types Cognitive Operations Memory
Convergent Thinking
Divergent
Thinking
Evaluative Thinking
Shows the comparison between the two methods of questioning

8. Characteristics of Good Questioning
Q - quality
U - understanding
E - encourage multiple responses
S - spark new questions
T - thought-provoking
I - individualized
O - ownership shifted to students
N - narrow and broad
S - success building
Expectations aligned with Common Core and/or SBAC
Understanding- must be grounded in text; shows understanding of material
Encouraging multiple responses- shifting focus to students
Sparking new questions- fosters student-student dialogue

9. Question Matrix
Chuck Wiederhold designed the Question Matrix in As you proceed through the matrix, the questions become more complex and open-ended.
Main area of focus with teachers because it is easily transferrable to application in the classroom. I II
III IV

10. LINKING CIARDIELLO / WIEDERHOLD
Question Types
Memory
Convergent Thinking
Divergent
Thinking
Evaluative Thinking I II
Shows the correlation of the research to the categorizing the level of difficulty of a question
III IV

11. WIEDERHOLD QUESTION MATRIX
Event
Situation
Choice
Person
Reason
Means
Present
What is?
Where / When is?
Which is?
Who is?
Why is?
How is?
Past
What did?
Where / When did?
Which did?
Who did?
Why did?
How did?
Possibility
What can?
Where / When can?
Which can?
Who can?
Why can?
How can?
Probability
What would?
Where / When would?
Which would?
Who would?
Why would?
How would?
Prediction
What will?
Where / When will?
Which will?
Who will?
Why will?
How will?
Imagination
What might?
Where / When might?
Which might?
Who might?
Why might?
How might?
Focus on developing questions from quadrants 3 & 4
-- quadrants 1 & 2 help for checking for prior knowledge at start of lesson, scaffolding information, and for differentiation
Share color-coded cards and explain purpose –
- get students to participate by asking questions in class of the teacher or of their peers
-- can also be used during group work
Recommendation- Teachers can take the questions from the quadrants 3 & 4 and post them in the room to help them to develop “divergent” questions during the lesson.
Students can also be taught to use the same question starters when they interact with one another.

12. Ask Questions That:
Stimulate a wide range of student participation from both volunteering and non-volunteering students.
Redirect initially asked questions to other students!
Probe initial student answers. Encourage them to complete, clarify, expand, or support their answers
Require students to generate questions of their own
Reinforces messages from Teach Like a Champion:
“Cold Call” – establishes that everyone is expected to participate, regardless of whether a hand is raised
“Stretch it” – encourages teachers to ask tougher questions of students after a right answer is given.
Ratio- Push more and more of the cognitive work onto the students.
- batch processing: strategically stepping out of the way

13. Results in Student Behaviors When Wait Time is Increased
Decrease in “I don’t know” responses
Length & accuracy of answers increases
Increase in volunteered, appropriate responses
Increased achievement test scores
Introduce slide:
Biggest mistake teachers make is by not giving enough wait time for students to respond. When wait time is not long enough, it results in the “ping pong” questioning technique (Teach Like a Champion).
Beside asking questions, you have to think about what’s happening between the questions being asked.

14. Results in Teacher Behaviors When Wait Time is Increased
Questioning strategies became more flexible and varied
Quantity of questions asked decreased, while the quality and variety of questions increased
Higher-order, divergent questions were asked more often
Refer to handout from Edutopia Blog:
“Three Steps for Improving Teacher Questions”
** see bolded text
Step 1: make connections to Common Core, rigor, etc.
Step 2: need to prepare questions in advance is crucial (use cards and posted questions)
Step 3: Make sure questions are scaffolded. Refer to handout/template (teacher identifies key concepts in lessons and scaffolds questions accordingly).
** Show template and teacher sample from AAE Middle
Show handouts on question types that assist teachers to develop their scaffolded questions (New Blooms, Quality Teacher Questions, Costa’s Levels of Thinking & Questioning)

15. Classroom “Look fors”
Encourage teachers to prepare questions in advance.
Questions should be scaffolded from easy to hard.
Look for an environment that is student- led. Students should be working collaboratively, raising questions, and responding to their peers.

16. Academy of Aerospace & Engineering Middle School
Math Classroom
English/Language Arts Classroom
View videos and take notes based on information presented on questioning

17. Exit Slip Review questions from Schema Activator.
Review ratings of these questions. Would you change these? Why?
What suggestions would you give to the teacher(s) who originally developed these questions to help them improve their techniques?