Sunday, October 23, 2011

Questioning Session 2

Improving Student Question

All questions should be celebrated. They’re born of confusion and misunderstandings.

Strategies -

  • Encourage questions - task based activity - What they know, what the need to know.
  • Celebrate questions
  • Create conversation and question design sessions
  • Minimise negative signals to questions
  • Be willing to walk away from planned lessons, allowing students to pursue relevant questions
  • Be creative and be quiet
  • Pair/Share,
  • Small groups,
  • Wondering Wall, explain the link of their question to the topic being discussed and add question to the wondering wall.
  • Donut - Inside/outside circles,
  • 1/3/6, Question counters/tokens - each student has same number of counters and must ask that number of questions,
  • Think mats/Place mats
  • Think board,
  • Hands down - 60 sec to think of 2 questions,
  • Idea harvest - sit in circle with own notes, add others ideas to your list.
  • Modeling questions,
  • Structure of groups, expect an outcome, - comment of agreement/disagreement, shared understanding
  • 3 level guide for reading - come up with 3 questions
  • Role play
  • Hot seating

Wonder wall at staff meetings!!!

Wondering Wall - explain, have post its available, write down questions, add to the wall, have set time each week to discuss the questions.

When a child asks a statement turn it into a question AND when a child asks a question turn it into an activity!

Giving the answer often stops the thinking

Supon and Wolf (1993)

Why students do not ask questions -

  1. lack of understanding of taxonomies
  2. time constraints
  3. teachers’ fears
  4. content coverage needs
  5. improper modeling

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