Teaching with Depth

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Teaching with Depthusing Questions
Partially Adapted from Polk County, Florida
Professional Development Presentation
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Making Sense Worthwhile Tasks
What are our kids really being asked to do?

How are we keeping up with Cognitive Demand?
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• Why do we ask questions?
• A Conversation About Questioning
• In a high school science classroom, the following
  dialogue was heard

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• Teacher Why do I ask questions?
• Student So you can check up on us.
• Teacher What do you mean, check up on you?
• Student To see if we are learning anything.
• Teacher Are you saying that when I ask you a
  question, its like my giving you a test or quiz?
• Student Yup.
• Teacher What if I said, "I ask questions to
  learn from you I want to know how you are
  thinking about what we are learning"?
• Student I would have to think about that.
• Teacher Why?
• Student Because I never thought about it that
  way. I thought you were checking up on whether we
  were listening to you. I didnt think you were
  interested in my thinking.

Source Ester Fusco, What Was the Question?
Rethinking Questioning, ASCD
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• Teacher Reflections
• DOK in your classroom

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vAs the teacher, do you

• 1. Ask at least 3 to 5 questions per lesson?
• 2. Ask questions that require students to go
  through at least 2 thinking steps?
• 3. Ask the same number of questions of all
  students?
• 4. Ask students to explain their answers?
• 5. Avoid giving answers away or hinting at
  answers when you ask questions?
• 6. Ask open ended questions?
• 7. Ask students to be specific and complete in
  their answers?
• 8. Ask students if they agree or disagree with an
  answer given by you or another student.
• 9. When students say, I dont know, do you
• a) ask the same question again,
• b) rephrase the question and ask it again
• c) ask a question that breaks the 1st
  question down into smaller parts

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Some Questioning Strategies

• Ask questions that require students to go through
  at least 2 thinking steps
• Ask students to explain their answers
• Avoid giving answers away or hinting at answers
  when you ask questions
• Ask open ended questions
• Ask students to be specific and complete in their
  answers
• Ask students if they agree or disagree with an
  answer given by you or another student.
• When students say I do not know
• rephrase the question and ask it again
• ask a question that breaks the 1st question down
  into smaller parts

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So why do we ask questions?
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Purpose of ?s in Classrooms

• Develop interest and motivate students to become
  actively involved in lessons
• Develop critical thinking skills and
  questioning/inquiring attitudes
• Review/summarize previous lessons
• Nurture insights by exposing new relationships
• Increase Student-Student discourse and
  collaboration
• Assess achievement of instructional
  goals/objective

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Depth of Knowledge

• Focuses on
• Complexity of content standards
• Outcome (product) is the focus of how much the
  students understand
• Does NOT focus on the VERB, but the CONTEXT in
  which the verb is used, and the DEPTH OF THINKING
  required.

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• DOK references the complexity of mental
  processing that must occur to answer a
  question/perform a task
• FOR EXAMPLE
• Adding is a mental process.
• Knowing the rule for adding is the intended
  outcome that influences the DOK.
• Once someone learns the rule of how to add, 4
  4 is DOK 1 and is also easy.
• Adding 4,678,895 9,578,885 is still a DOK 1
  but may be more difficult.

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DOK is not about difficulty...
Difficulty is a reference to how many students
answer a question correctly. How many of you
know the definition of an atom? DOK 1
recall If all of you know the definition, this
question is an easy question. How many of you
know the definition of hydrophobic? DOK 1
recall If most of you do not know the
definition, this question is a difficult
question.
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Verbs are not always used appropriately...
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• Words like explain or analyze have to be
  considered in context
• Explain to me where you live does not raise the
  DOK of a simple rote response.
• (low order)
• Even if the student has to use addresses or
  landmarks, the student is doing nothing more than
  recalling and reciting.

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DOK is about what follows the verb...
What comes after the verb is more important than
the verb itself. Analyze this sentence to
decide if the commas have been used correctly
does not meet the criteria for high cognitive
processing. The student is merely using the
rule he/she was taught.
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Same VerbThree Different DOK Levels
DOK 1- Describe three characteristics of
metamorphic rocks. (Requires simple recall) DOK
2- Describe the difference between metamorphic
and igneous rocks. (Requires cognitive processing
to determine the differences in the two rock
types) DOK 3- Describe a model that you might
use to represent the relationships that exist
within the rock cycle. (Requires deep
understanding of rock cycle and a determination
of how best to represent it)
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DOK is about complexity
The intended student learning outcome
determines the DOK level.
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Webbs Four Levels of Cognitive Complexity

• Level 1 Recall and Reproduction
• Level 2 Skills Concepts
• Level 3 Strategic Thinking
• Level 4 Extended Thinking

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What does this look like in the classroom?

• Using your current benchmark
• Level 1 (recall) ? __________________
• Level 2 (skill/concept) ? _____________
• Level 3 (strategic thinking) ? __________
• Level 4 (extended thinking) ? _________
• turn and talk

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• What level am I?
• A scientist synthesizes a new drug. She wants to
  test its effectiveness in stopping the growth of
  cancerous tumors. She decides to conduct a series
  of experiments on lab mice to test her
  hypothesis. What should she do?

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• ANS level 2 students must understand what is
  a hypothesis and apply this knowledge

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Writing Scaffolded Questions

• The EQ is the umbrella

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Writing Scaffolded Questions

• SC.912.L.17.20 Predict the impact of individuals
  on environmental systems and examine how human
  lifestyles affect sustainability. High
• EQ How do the needs and wants of humans affect
  their surroundings? Level 3
• What needs do you have as a human being? Level
  1
• How do you or your parents attain those
  resources? Level 1
• Discuss the affects that these needs and wants
  may have on the environment. Level 2
• Based on the chart . Predict the effects of the
  loss of a major non-renewable resource such as
  fossil fuels . Level 4

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TASK and TRANSFER

• Compose 1 Essential Question (EQ) for your lesson
  plan.
• 2. Develop 3 probing/scaffolded questions

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Follow up Activity

• Script at least 3 Higher Order Questions (HOQ) in
  lesson plans.
• For each HOQ develop probing/scaffolded questions
  
• 3. For each lesson, create at least 1 higher
  level extended learning activity.

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He who learns but does not think, is lost. He
who thinks, but does not learn is in great
danger. ConfuciousDesign and formulate a
series of higher order questions supplementing
your current lessons theme and learning
objective.