Teaching Thinking Through Effective Questioning

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Teaching Thinking Through Effective Questioning

• Melisa Hancock
• Dr. David Allen

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Whose Line Is It Anyway?

• History and Context
• Round 1-Count Questions
• Round 2-Higher Level Questions
• Round 3-Planned Questions

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Whose Line Is It Anyway?

• Discussion (Share Observed Patterns)
• 32 classroom observations
• 611 questions asked
• 80 of the questions closed-ended questions
  requiring little student thought or input
  (450/611)
• 11 asked students to analyze content/topic
  (64/611)
• 6 required students to synthesize information
  and generate new ideas (36/611)
• 3 asked students to evaluate the topic or idea
  (21)
• Important NoteThese teachers were using a
  Standards-Based Curriculum and they knew they
  were going to be observed. They were asked to
  teach an inquiry-based lesson.

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• Who do we think of when we think of types of
  questioning?

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Taxonomies and Questioning Systems

• Blooms Taxonomy
• McTighe Wiggins Six Facets of Understanding
• Stein and Smiths Cognitive Levels

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Why do you ask questions?

• 47 managerial
• 43 informational
• 10 higher-order
• National Educational Service

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Group Task

• In a group of five, generate a list of the
  characteristics of a good question and provide an
  example at your grade level.

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What Are Good Questions?

• illicit thinking
• promote sense making
• are open-ended
• unravel students misconceptions
• require application of facts and procedures but
  encourage students to make connections and
  generalizations
• are accessible to all students
• lead students to wonder more about a topic and to
  perhaps construct new questions

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Good Questions Elicit Thinking

• In NCTMs Principles of Standards for School
  Mathematics, teachers are encouraged to develop
  instructional programs that enable ALL students
  to make and investigate mathematical
  conjectures and communicate their mathematical
  thinking coherently and clearly.

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Effective Questioning

• To be an effective questioner, it is better to
  use the students response to guide your next
  question than to use your question to guide the
  students response.

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How Are Good Questions Created?

• When we think about questions that we
• might ask our students, it is helpful to
• consider these issues
• the goals of the lesson
• the misconceptions students may have
• the connections wed like students to make
  between lesson goals and previously covered
  concepts and/or procedures
• assessment of understanding
• Good questions lead to answers that require
  more than a focus on memorized procedures or
  formulas

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What You Ask . .Is What You Get!

• Good questions can be used as the basis for an
  entire lesson that stands alone or as part of a
  unit of work.
• It is important to PLAN the questions in advance.

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How To Create Good Questions

• Method 1 - Working Backward
• Step 1 Identify a topic or lesson
• Step 2 Think of a closed question and
• write down the answer.
• Step 3 Make up a question that
• includes (or addresses) the
• answer.

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Method 1- Example

• Step 1 Topic Averages
• Step 2 Closed question The children in the
  Hancock family are aged 27, 39, 45, 51, 33. What
  is their average age? (39)
• Step 3 Good Question There are five children
  in a family. Their average is 39. How old might
  the children be?

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Method 2-Adapting a Standard Question

• Step 1 Identify a topic
• Step 2 Think of a standard question
• Step 3 Adapt it to make a good
• question

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Method 2-Example

• Step 1 Topic for tomorrow is area of a circle.
• Step 2 A typical exercise might be The Area of
  a Circle is equal to pi times the square of the
  radius. (Apr2) Find the Area of a Circle with a
  radius of 2 feet.
• Step 3 Develop the concept of a radius square.
  Use a radius square to determine the approximate
  number of radius squares that it will take to
  cover the circle.

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What You ASK . . Is What You Get!!!

• Using a traditional content lesson or topic,
  write
• 2-3 questions for the lesson that require
  students
• to do more than remember a technique or fact.
• Questions need to be meaningful and challenging.
• Allow for different strategies and approaches to
  be used in reaching a solution(s).
• Require justification, explanation of
  solution(s).
• Require skills (e.g. arithmetic) to be applied in
  a subtle way.
• May involve drawing, manipulatives, or other
  tools.