Good questioning helps students build understanding, but poor questioning can deter students from learning. How can you create great questions? Teaching expert and author Barbara Blackburn shares four strategies to involve students daily in effective class discussions.
Class Apps / Student Questioning
by Curtis Chandler · Published 04/02/2019 · Last modified 06/21/2023
Too often classroom questioning becomes pedagogical ping-pong, resulting in predictable, back-and-forth exchanges between teachers and students. Use these questioning strategies and tools shared by teacher educator and former Kansas TOY Curtis Chandler to up your game.
During classroom discussion, paired Think Times provide a break in the action that helps teachers use student responses to shape effective feedback to learners, says expert Jackie Walsh – provided we “explicitly instruct our students in the what, why, and how of these time-outs.”
Close Reading the Media / Critical Thinking
by Frank Baker · Published 10/24/2018 · Last modified 11/28/2019
The rise in fake news calls attention to the lack of critical thinking by many of today’s readers, including students. Media literacy expert Frank Baker shares an essential teaching tool and other resources for ELA and social studies teachers ready to address the issue.
One area of Matt Smith’s teaching “that has improved tremendously since my novice days” is facilitating productive discussions. Students need to engage in active talk to process complex ideas. This won’t happen until teachers master “wait time” and stop affirming too much.
Student discussions fueled by doubts and personal questions can push learning very deep, says teaching consultant Jackie Walsh. To set the stage, educators will need to address Teacher Mindset, Classroom Culture, Teaching Modeling, and Student Skills and Dispositions.
The Unstoppable ML Teacher / Wait Time
by Valentina Gonzalez · Published 04/08/2018 · Last modified 03/19/2024
How can something as simple as Wait Time have such an incredible impact? It’s the difference between a student, especially an ELL, fully being engaged and participating, and a student becoming frustrated and checking out, writes teaching specialist Valentina Gonzalez.
Quality Questioning Can Help Us Transform Our Classrooms provides a detailed guide for fashioning quality questions and asking them in ways to encourage student learning. Instructional Partner Debby Smith says new and veteran teachers will want to keep it at hand.
Jackie Walsh shares resources and strategies teachers can use to partner with students and create new roles and responsibilities in classroom questioning. Replace traditional “interrogation” with methods of inquiry that reveal understanding and strengthen learning.
Quality questions are the “bait” that can hook students into deeper discussions and learning that sticks. Questioning expert Jackie Walsh shares a pair of videos and several templates that will help teachers plan a questioning process that pulls all students in.
