Transcript Highly Effective Questioning - Citrus County School District

Questioning Strategies to Improve Skill and
Concept Development K-12
D. Brown & K. Kopp
August 5, 2009
CCSB Motto 2009-2010: “Leading and Teaching with Intentionality”
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These strategies can be used throughout
instruction.
These strategies are best for practice or
reinforcement of instruction.
HEQ should be used about 10 to 25 minutes
daily.
These strategies help students learn to think
critically about what they read.
The questioning strategy is systematic.
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Engaging students in questioning:
◦ Assesses students’ current understanding of
subject matter
◦ Creates new learning moments
◦ Improves teacher understanding of how students
think
◦ Engages reluctant learners
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A critical thinking skill is a mental act.
Critical thinkers are active and not passive.
A critical thinking skill is a critical or
important mental act.
Critical thinking skills can be taught, and
instruction that builds and reinforces critical
thinking is imperative.
Critical thinking skills are able to be
generalized across all content areas.
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Write out these three numbers on a sheet of
paper:
◦ One thousand eight hundred sixty-one
◦ One thousand seven hundred seventy-six
◦ One thousand nine hundred forty-one
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Answer these questions.
◦ What do you notice about the numbers?
◦ Are the numbers just quantities or
something else?
◦ How are they the same or different?
◦ What do they all have in common?
◦ Are they in any particular order?
◦ What is the theme of this content?
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We use our critical
thinking skills to
construct concepts
that tie together pieces
of content. The more
developed the level of
critical thinking skills,
the greater the
understanding of the
content of school
instruction.
Critical
Thinking
Skills
Concepts
Wars
History
Dates
American
Wars
Content
1776
1861
1941
Triangle of the “Three C’s”
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Scope
Example: For the figure
below, a good broadlyscoped question would
simply be:
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The question should be phrased
in such a way as to allow for the
broadest set of possible answers.
Maintain broad scope in your
initial questions.
“What do you see here?”
B
C
Triangle
ABC
BCD
BCE
Triangle
ABE
A
Triangle
Triangle
Triangle
E
CDE
Narrow your scope as the
questioning continues.
Intentionality
D
You should continue questioning until
students match your intentionality and
can label all 5 triangles.
The answers you intend to hear
back from students should have
the characteristics of being
(1) specific; (2) justified; and
(3) complete.
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Students come to school with the need to
learn, and when they are in school, they do
not have the right not to learn.
 Ensure involuntary questioning of each and every
student
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Students are undertrained not underbrained; they are dormant but not dead!
 Try to ask each student an equal range of questions
(quantity) and, initially, questions of similar difficulty
(quality). Remember to “choose your question, then
choose your student.”
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We must learn to use intensive questioning,
not just occasional questioning.
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Ask only questions during the session and refrain
from explaining, telling, hinting, and using other
non-questioning strategies. Question, question,
question – ask only questions.
We must follow a question-responsequestion (Q-R-Q) pattern in our questioning
of students
 Have students justify all responses.
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We must try to keep our questions positive but not
pushy.
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We do not ask questions that promote random trial
and error behavior.
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Never ask negative questions. Be positive or neutral.
Do not ask questions that encourage guessing.
We must act to discourage the use of “I don’t know”
as a way for students to avoid classroom
participation.
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If a student says “I don’t know,” follow up immediately with
one to three additional questions to the same student.
http://www.workshopsinquestioning.com/
(Refer to “The Most Intelligent Person”)
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Read the information related to your HEQ
Step.
Define the Step and explain why it is
important to the HEQ process.
Give examples of verb stems.
Review the sample questions from the Power
Point and book. Include any additional
questions you thought of.
Include any other information everyone
should know.
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Step 1: Label, Identify, Find
◦ What facts do you observe?
◦ What can you tell me as you look at the page?
◦ What are the most relevant facts? How do you
know?
◦ What is the key information?
◦ What do you see?
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Step 2: Connect, Compare, Contrast, Infer
What is connected?
What is implied?
What should connect but doesn’t?
What is disconnected?
How is A alike/different from B?
How are A and B like C and D?
What is the relationship?
What do you know about A?
What is the moral of this story?
How do you know what the graph will look like from the
given information?
◦ Where in everyday life might you use this type of graph?
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Step 3: Sequence, Classify, Integrate, Presummarize
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What is this paragraph about, overall?
What are the main points?
Put the information given in order.
What is the sequence of events?
What is the trend?
How would you classify this information?
Give a brief summary of the information.
Outline the process so far.
What do all the separate points have in common?
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Step 4: Decode, Interpret (questions)
◦ What is the question asking, and why?
◦ How can we use the information given to solve the
problem?
◦ What does the author want us to do, in your own
words?
◦ What are we solving?
◦ Where do you see that in the question?
◦ Tell me more.
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Step 5: Encode, Answer (questions)
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What is your answer, and why?
What did you come up with, and how?
What evidence supports your answer?
How did you get that?
Which answer best answers the question?
How do you know A is not the answer?
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Step 6: Apply, Predict
How would you apply this?
If we were to change A, how would this affect B?
What if A never happened?
How does the solution to this problem relate to
another problem?
◦ Where do we see this in our own lives?
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Step 7: Summarize, Conclude
What did you learn today?
Summarize today’s lesson.
What do you remember from this lesson?
Walk us through the entire process from beginning
to end.
◦ How did we meet our goals today?
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Where do the questions generated at the
beginning of the workshop fall with regard to
the HEQ strategy?
Use your own content area text. Write a
series of HEQ’s for an up-coming selection.