Learning Comes from Thinking

Dont Evaluate Answers That Stops the Thinking

Often, when a student answers a question, a teacher will say, good answer. This type of response from a teacher causes all other students, who may have had different answers, to end their participation: If that student was told her answer is good then, since my answer is different, Ill not share it. When students provide answers, especially when pairs of students begin to share the results from their no-hands-up discussion, teachers should only acknowledge their responses with, thanks for sharing. To encourage further thinking the teacher should now turn to the other students and ask, who agrees and who disagrees? This approach encourages thinking because now students see that any response is still acceptable and they will continue to think about the issue.

WRDSB

Asking Questions:
Using Questioning as an Effective Instructional Strategy

Learning comes from thinking, so how do you cause thinking using good questioning strategies? The challenge with traditional approaches to questioning in class is that the teacher will ask a question and some students will think about the answer and put up their hands. When the teacher calls upon one student to answer the question the rest of the class stops thinking. How can we make sure all the students do the thinking that comes with questioning? One approach to get every student thinking is to implement a no hands policy. With this strategy the teacher poses the question and then asks students to turn to a partner and talk about possible answers. The partner talk engages both students to think about the issue, and students get to test their answers with a peer before venturing to share it with a class.

Learning occurs when thinking occurs. Teachers need to using Questioning Strategies to get the most thinking out of their students.

Professional Resource for Teachers

Questions in the 3 part Lesson*

Posing Powerful Questions*

This Posing Powerful Questions Template is an adaptation of the TIPS Three-Part Lesson Template with a focus on rich questions for each part of the lesson. Beginning with the end in mind, the lesson goal is filtered through a curriculum expectation connected to the Big Idea and a Consolidating Question is developed to determine students understanding of the lesson goal. (Assessment for and as Learning) Lesson Title: Goals(s) for a Specific Lesson Grade/Program:

Curriculum Expectations

Using questions within the 3-part lesson:

Minds On Questions are engaging to get students hooked serve as assessment for learning opportunities could be open questions, building on what students already know Action! Questions are more substantive and activate a problem/task/exploration that requires students to confront the new knowledge that is the goal of the lesson may require scaffolding questions that are more specific but still as open as possible could be open questions or parallel tasks Consolidation Questions are planned first, i.e., beginning with the end in mind focus on connecting to the Big Idea for the lesson could be open questions, focusing on assessing student understanding of the goal for the lesson

Big Idea(s) Addressed by the Expectations

Minds On Sample Question(s):

Action! Sample Question(s):

Scaffolding Questions: (posed to individuals as needed)

Consolidate/Debrief Sample Question(s):

*adapted from:

http://www.edugains.ca/resources/LearningMaterials/ContinuumConnection/BigIdeasQuestioning_ProportionalReasoning.pdf