1. Questioning Strategies for Coaching and Teaching
It’s all about asking the right questions.
Presented by Janet Stephenson
Brevard Public Schools
Math Institute
June 8-12, 2015

2. First, let’s take a look at the lighter side of questioning.
Engage you with humor, silly business!

3. No,there is an elephant in the way.
Does the object continue to move?
No,there is an elephant in the way.

9. What did you do about the remainder?
A. Ignored it.
Why? I didn’t want to waste time with remainders (dinner time). ?

11. Why is it important to get kids talking about their math reasoning?
Elbow Partners Time
What is discourse?
Why is it important to get kids talking about their math reasoning?

13. Find on pinterest, google images, teacher pay teachers

14. My best advice to anyone preparing to implement the MAFS is to get students talking and writing about their work.  Regardless of your stance on the MAFS being an effective communicator is a valuable and often challenging life skill.  It is even more challenging when the content is not something you feel completely comfortable with. 

15. Instructional Strategies
TRADITIONAL
Teacher Role
As a dispenser of knowledge
Student Role
Passive Receiver
Student Work
Teacher prescribed activities
INQUIRY
Teacher Role
As a coach and facilitator
Student Role
Self-directed learner
Student Work
Student directed learning
Linda
Traditional Inquiry
Teacher Role Teacher Role
Gives information Helps students process information
Directs student action Models the learning process
Explains concept Facilitates student thinking
Directs use of textbooks Flexible use of materials
Student Role Student Role
Listens to Learn Processes information
Memorizes information Interprets, explains, hypothesizes
Student Work Student Work
Emphasizes worksheets investigative activities
All complete same task tasks vary among students
Basic level of comprehension emphasizes reasoning, reading and writing for meaning, solving problems, and explaining complex problems
HANDOUT: Recommendations on Teaching Mathematics
NEXT SLIDE: Learner Engagement

16. Why Questioning? Taps Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)
Helps students reason and make sense of math
Make connections

17. Does this sound familiar?
Walk about results:
82% of questions—remember
88% of questions were asked of 1 student
Wait time 1 was used 20 out of 500 obs.
When no answer: repeated the question, rephrased it or answered it
40% of questions answered incorrectly or incompletely—no feedback
(c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

18. Changing the Rules and the Roles of the Game
Traditional classroom questioning can be compared to a baseball game. The TEACHER plays the roles of: pitcher, catcher, umpire, base players, and outfielders.
The STUDENTS? One at a time, they come up to bat: take a swing (sometimes hit and sometimes miss); then go back to sit on the bench until it’s their turn to bat again.
Who’s engaged all the time?
Traditional classroom questioning is often called I-R-E. The teacher initiates a question, the student responds (one student at a time), and the teacher evaluates the response as to its correctness.
Walsh and Sattes liken this IRE classroom to a baseball game. But let’s look at who gets to play. Who pitches the questions? (the teacher in most classrooms is the pitcher.) The teacher is also the catcher and umpire; plays 1st, 2nd, and 3rd base—and fields the responses in the outfield too.
What are students doing in this old paradigm game? They sit on the bench and go up to bat one at a time; typically they get only one swing and then sit down. And some of those students never even get to bat; some students get to swing at almost every question!
So: who’s engaged all the time?
(expect a choral response: the teacher!)
(c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

19. Changing the Rules and the Roles of the Game
Quality questioning classrooms engage all players: in pitching questions, batting (answering) in cooperative response formats, fielding the responses, and throwing follow-up questions to one another.
This requires that all stay alert and engaged all the time!
We’d like to change up the rules and the roles of the game and see students pitching (or asking questions); students fielding others’ responses; students playing infield, catcher, and as they reflect and self-assess, even umpire.
In this more active role, can you see that students will be more engaged?
(c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

20. What gets in the way of teachers posing higher order questions?
Table Talk
What gets in the way of teachers posing higher order questions?
Any solutions?

21. Our goal is to increase the percentage of our questions that require students to think. Where do we begin? 
Step 1: Crafting Higher-Level Thinking Questions
Step 2: Posing Higher-Level Thinking Questions
Another extremely valuable approach is improving the questions that teachers ask.  Teachers are aware that some questions require students to think more meaningfully, yet research shows that these questions are rarely asked.  Meredith D. Gall stated in The Use of Questions in Teaching that about 60% of teachers’ questions require students to recall facts; about 20% require students to think; and the remaining 20% are procedural.
So if our goal is to increase the percentage of our questions that require students to think, where do we begin?  We know that students often have an easier time explaining themselves orally before they can articulate themselves in writing.  Can you think of questions that you do/could/should ask that would get them to do this?  How realistic is it to come up with a question on the fly with limited classroom minutes?
**Posing questions requires explicit attention on the part of the teacher in order for this complex process to be effective.
I have faced the same struggles and I want to share a resource that is very useful in increasing the percentage of questions that require students to think.   Below is a version of The Art of Questioning in Mathematics that have been modified from the NCTM Professional Teaching Standards.   It contains questions that teachers can ask to further students’ thinking.  Some suggestions for incorporating these questions include:
Write them into a lesson

22. Coaching Cycle Tools Ch.5 – page 84
Planning Tools
Data Gathering Tools
Reflection Tools

23. Crafting Higher-level Thinking Questions requires preplanning efforts if the right questions are to be crafted for the lesson’s learning objectives.
Write them into a lesson plan
Put them on a podium/clipboard
Print them out in large letters and place around the room to remind you
After collecting data from 23,000 classrooms…
60% of questions posed were at lowest 2 levels of Blooms
We know that students often have an easier time explaining themselves orally before they can articulate themselves in writing.  Can you think of questions that you do/could/should ask that would get them to do this?  How realistic is it to come up with a question on the fly with limited classroom minutes?
I have faced the same struggles and I want to share a resource that is very useful in increasing the percentage of questions that require students to think.   Below is a version of The Art of Questioning in Mathematics that have been modified from the NCTM Professional Teaching Standards.   It contains questions that teachers can ask to further students’ thinking.  Some suggestions for incorporating these questions include:
Write them into a lesson

24. Try To List Handout P. 2 Use wait time
Avoid answering your own questions
Ask open ended questions
Follow up questions with phrases such as why or tell me how you know
Keep all students actively involved
There are some questions that you might want to avoid. Why? Because often you end up answer your own questions…and permitting students NOT to participate – that is, students are not required to take responsibility to develop a response depending how the question is phrased.

25. Phrases that May Fail to Motivate Handout P. 3
Does someone know if…
Can anyone here give me an example of…
Who knows the difference between….
Someone tell me the definition of…
Ok, who can tell me…
There are some questions that you might want to avoid. Why? Because often you end up answer your own questions…and permitting students NOT to participate – that is, students are not required to take responsibility to develop a response depending how the question is phrased.

26. 3 Typical Questioning Patterns
Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF)
IRF Example:
T: What is 30/2?
S: 15
T: Good
IRF – Does not engage students in higher order thinking; predetermined answer
Funneling – Teacher does the thinking for the student

27. 3 Typical Questioning Patterns
Funneling
Teacher: (0, 0) and (4, 1) [are two points on the line in graph B]. Great. What’s the slope?
[Long pause—no response from students.]
Teacher: What’s the rise? You’re going from 0 on the y [axis] up to 1? What’s the rise?
Students: 1.
Teacher: 1. What’s the run? You’re going from 0 to 4 on the x [axis]?
Students: 4.
Teacher: So the slope is ______?
Students: 0.25 [in unison with the teacher].
Teacher: And the y-intercept is?
Students: 0.
Teacher: So, y = 1/4x? Or y = 0.25x would be your equation
IRF – Does not engage students in higher order thinking; predetermined answer
Funneling – Teacher does the thinking for the student
When funneling, the student is still guided toward a predetermined solution strategy. The teacher takes over the thinking for the students, who may be paying more attention to language cues rather than the mathematical topics at hand.

28. 3 Typical Questioning Patterns
Focusing
How do you/we know?
What does this part represent in your/our solution?
How do you know your/our answer is reasonable?
What could you/we add to your/our solution to make it clearer for the reader?
How can you/we represent your/our thinking?
Focusing: In sum, managing classroom interactions needs to include paying attention to how an initial question is followed up and how it relates to the goals of the lesson.
Focusing – a subtle but significant shift in questioning in which the teacher asks questions based on the students’ thinking to support students in thinking at a higher level. A focusing-interaction pattern requires the teacher to listen to students’ responses and guide them based on what the students are thinking rather than how the teacher would solve the problem. This pattern of interaction serves many purposes, such as allowing the teacher to see more clearly what the students were thinking or requiring the students to make their thinking clear and articulate so that others can understand what they are saying. This type of interaction values student thinking and encourages students to contribute in the classroom.

29. Is the questioning pattern allowing the discussion to achieve the goals of the lesson?
Is the pattern helping students’ articulate their thinking? Or mainly providing feedback (IRF).
Is the pattern funneling students to use only the strategy we want them to use?
Coaches can work with teachers to identify current interaction patterns.
Try to modify them to focus student thinking.
Write down the series of questions that were asked and try to identify when an IRF pattern was being used, when funneling was occurring, and when students’ thinking was at its best.

30. 5 Productive Talk Moves Mathematics Coaching Book P. 79 Figure 5.2
Also P. 1 of handout
Revoicing
Rephrasing
Reasoning
Elaborating
Using Wait Time

31. 5 Productive Talk Moves P. 79 Figure 5.2
Teaching channel
Rephrasing: Click HERE! Mrs. Simpson’s class.
Reasoning: Click HERE! Mrs. Saul’s class. Heads Together, Butts Up

32. Productive Talk Formats Refer Handout P.1
Whole-Group Discussion
Small-Group Discussion
Partner - Talk

33. Elbow Partners Time
What are other creative ways or structures you have seen teachers use to engage their learners?

34. Planning Tools Mathematics Coaching Book P. 85 - 87
P. 85 – planning tool: coaching questions
P. 86 – PLANNING FOR STUDENT MISCONCEPTIONS – CREATE HIGHER LEVEL QUESTIONS
P. 87 – PLANNING QUESTIONS ACROSS A LESSON

35. Planning for Misconceptions Mathematics Coaching p. 86
MAFS.3.MD.1.1 Tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure time intervals in minutes. Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes, e.g., by representing the problem on a number line diagram.
Cognitive Complexity: Level 2: Basic Application of Skills & Concepts

36. Data Gathering Tools Mathematics Coaching Book P. 88-91
P. 88 & 89 – bloom’s Taxonomy - Webb’s DOK
P QUESTIONING PATTERNS
P. 91 – WAIT TIME

37. Table Talk: Teaching the Art of Questioning in Digestible Bites
Develop a time line for to use some of these planning and data collection tools.
Discuss how you might modify these tools to suit your needs.

38. Tips for Posing Questions Mathematics Coaching P. 16
Use Plurals
Open up to possibilities of more than one answer
There are some questions that you might want to avoid. Why? Because often you end up answer your own questions…and permitting students NOT to participate – that is, students are not required to take responsibility to develop a response depending how the question is phrased.

39. Tips for Posing Questions Mathematics Coaching P. 16
Tentative Language
Opens conversation to additional possibilities..
There are some questions that you might want to avoid. Why? Because often you end up answer your own questions…and permitting students NOT to participate – that is, students are not required to take responsibility to develop a response depending how the question is phrased.

40. Tips for Posing Questions Mathematics Coaching P. 16
Open Ended
Opens conversation to see coachees thought processes
There are some questions that you might want to avoid. Why? Because often you end up answer your own questions…and permitting students NOT to participate – that is, students are not required to take responsibility to develop a response depending how the question is phrased.

41. Tips for Posing Questions Mathematics Coaching P. 16
Positive Presuppositions
Show you presume positive intentions and competence.
There are some questions that you might want to avoid. Why? Because often you end up answer your own questions…and permitting students NOT to participate – that is, students are not required to take responsibility to develop a response depending how the question is phrased.

42. Tips for Posing Questions Mathematics Coaching P. 16
Higher Order Thinking
Change up your verbs to elicit higher order thinking.
There are some questions that you might want to avoid. Why? Because often you end up answer your own questions…and permitting students NOT to participate – that is, students are not required to take responsibility to develop a response depending how the question is phrased.

43. Tips for Posing Questions Mathematics Coaching P. 16
Approachable Voice
Signal inquiry instead of interrogation. Use the voice of building relationships .
There are some questions that you might want to avoid. Why? Because often you end up answer your own questions…and permitting students NOT to participate – that is, students are not required to take responsibility to develop a response depending how the question is phrased.
Head nodding
Rhythmic Tone
Head straight
Flat tone

45. Connecting Mathematical Practices to Questioning and Discourse Mathematical Coaching p. 79-80
Goal: Students ask themselves these questions as they solve mathematical tasks.
WHAT DO WE TALK ABOUT?

48. 1. HELP STUDENTS WORK TOGETHER TO MAKE SENSE OF MATH
What helped you be successful in solving the problem?
Do you agree? Disagree? Why or why not?
Does anyone have the same answer but a different way to explain it?
Would you ask the rest of the class that question?
Can you convince the rest of us that that makes sense?

49. 2. HELP STUDENTS TO LEARN TO REASON MATHEMATICALLY
Does that always work? Why or why not?
How are these answers alike/different?
Is that true for all cases? Explain?
Can you think of a counter example?
How could you prove that?
What assumptions are you making?

50. 3. HELP STUDENTS TO CONSTRUCT ARGUMENTS AND CRITIQUE REASONING OF OTHERS
Why did you use ______ to solve it?
How did you get __________?
Why do you think that?
Why is that true?
How did you reach that conclusion?
Does that make sense?
Can you make a model and show that?

51. 4. HELP STUDENTS TO MODEL WITH MATHEMATICS
How does your model connect to the equation?
Why is that true?
How did you reach that conclusion?
How are your models alike and different?
Can you make a model and show that?
How did you think about the problem?

52. 5. LOOK FOR AND MAKE USE OF STRUCTURE
 Do you see a pattern? Explain?
What are some possibilities here?
Have we ever solved a problem like this one before?
Can you predict the next one? What about the last one?
What decision do you think he/she should make?
What is alike and what is different about your method of solution and his/hers?

53. TROUBLESHOOTING Handout p. 5-7
Table Talk
Brainstorm possible solutions to the scenarios on p. 6 – 7 of handout.

54. Create your action plan? Who will you work with?
What resources will you use?
How will you further questioning and student engagement in your school?

55. Elbow Partners Time Share your plan. What barriers might you face?
How will you overcome them?

56. Honor the TIME it takes to implement change.