Question Techniques

Research-Based Strategies for Teachers

Curriculum Instruction

Standards Assessment

ResourcesEffective Instructional Strategies

Narrow Your Focus

Integration of Effective Teaching Strategiesand Brain-based Strategies

Learning Focus:Questioning Strategies

Team-based approach “Synergy”When cooperative interaction creates an enhanced combined effect [resources and/or efforts].”Increase teacher/leader understanding

of the professional language and best practice anchored in Questioning Strategies

GUIDING QUESTIONS…1. What does the research say about

questioning? 2. Why should we use questioning?3. How do we organize a questioning framework?4. How does questioning relate to Teacher Leader Effectiveness (TLE)?5. How does questioning relate to Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI)?

“Take a Stand”

• Formative Assessment to establish comfort zone levels and connect to prior knowledge.

• Allows learners to move and stretch.

• “Vote with Your Feet”

What do you KNOW about questioning?

• Using the K-W-L strategy: Create three columns

• First Column (Know) Reflection: What do you already know about Questioning?

• Second Column (What or Wonder) Reflection: What do you want to know about questioning?• Third Column (Learned) Reflection: What have you

learned about Questioning?

What questions do you have?

• One minute to formulate questions on K-W-L Chart (individual reflection)

• Share personal questions with your table

Group Reflection

• Scribe: Record questions to share with the group –

• Turn in questions to aid in development of Frequently Asked Questions (FQAs)

Questioning Techniques:Research-Based Strategies for Teachers

• Questioning techniques are a heavily used, and thus widely researched, teaching strategy. Research indicates that asking questions is second only to lecturing in its use.

• Teachers typically spend anywhere from 35 to 50 percent of their instructional time asking questions.

• But are these questions effective in raising student achievement?

• How can teachers ask better questions of their students?

• How can current educational research inform practice?

Improving in this area requires a reflective and metacognitive

approach (both as an individual and as a team).

Seek out resources and professional development that can help you improve your questioning techniques.

If possible, start a study group with colleagues.

Discover the power of Instructional Rounds.

• Plan and write out the questions to be used in a lesson. How many are lower cognitive questions? Higher cognitive questions? Is the percentage appropriate for the age and ability level of your students?

• Anticipate possible student responses, especially partially correct or incorrect ones. How will you probe for further information or redirect?

• Ask a colleague to observe a lesson, paying particular attention to the types of questions and student responses. Meet to discuss the observations and plan for improvement.

• Videotape yourself teaching a lesson. When you watch, record your wait-time for each question. Also note if you provide longer wait-times to certain students. Or examine your feedback. Are you specific and focused on the students’ responses?

Why ask questions?

• To actively involve students in the lesson• To increase motivation or interest• To evaluate students’ preparation• To check on completion of work• To develop critical thinking skills• To review previous lessons• To nurture insights• To assess achievement or mastery of goals and

objectives• To stimulate independent learning

• In general, research shows that instruction involving questioning is more effective than instruction without questioning. Questioning is one of the nine research-based strategies presented in Classroom Instruction That Works (Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock 2001).

Personal Time to Browse and Reflect

• www.alcaweb.org• Strategies Room• Questioning Topic– 1 Basics • What does that mean?• Why?

Types of questions

• Educators have traditionally classified questions according to Bloom’s Taxonomy, a hierarchy of increasingly complex intellectual skills. Bloom’s Taxonomy includes six categories:

Bloom’s Revised• Remembering – recall data or information• Understanding – understand meaning• Applying – use a concept in a new situation• Analyzing – separate concepts into parts;

distinguish between facts and inferences• Evaluation – make judgments about the value

of ideas or products• Creating - Combine parts to form new

meaning

Simplified Classification

• Lower Cognitive Questions (closed, fact, direct, recall, and knowledge questions)involve the recall of information.

• Higher Cognitive Questions (open-ended, interpretive, evaluative, inquiry, inferential, and synthesis questions) involve the mental manipulation of information to produce or support an answer.

Asking Good Questions

• Closed-ended questions do not invite thoughtful or extended responses. Typical responses might be “yes, no, I don’t know, or I think so”. They are structured to give one word responses or a piece of information.

• Open-ended questions leaves the form of the answer up to the person responding.

Type and Number of Responses

• Convergent questions have a single or accepted correct answer. Convergent questions may require the student to repeat facts, terminology, or framework.

• Divergent questions often require new creative insights, personal judgment, beyond the text inferring. Divergent questions do not have one correct answer.

Simplified Classification Bloom’s Taxonomy Simplified Classification

Recall and Understand

• Lower Cognitive Questions

• Closed Questions• Convergent

Responses

Apply and Analyze

Transitioning Questions

Moving from Guided Practice to Independence

Evaluate and Synthesize

• Higher Cognitive Questions

• Open-ended Questions

• Divergent Responses

Create and Publish

• Student-Centered Learning

• Embedded Learning

ActivityThink-Pair-Share

Materials needed: Handout of Costa’s Three Levels of Questions

Instructions: 1. Work with a partner. Be prepared to share with

the group.2. Read through the three levels of questions. 3. Discuss the information presented this morning. Include prior knowledge and/or personal experience and judgment.4. Make connections. “Jot Down” as much information as you can to make connections for each of the three levels.

How Many Questions? When?

• Simply asking a greater number of questions does not facilitate the learning of more complex material.

• It is necessary to include explicit instruction and modeling of “Question to Answer Strategies” to promote student learning.

• It essential to pose questions Before-During-After instruction.

Wait-Time

• Wait-time is another crucial factor in questioning techniques.

• Wait-time can be defined as the amount of time a teacher allows to elapse after he or she has posed a question.

• A less frequently used and researched definition is the amount of time that a teacher allows to elapse before responding after a student stops speaking.

Interesting Facts about Wait-Time

• Average wait-time after a question was posed “one second or less”.

• Students perceived as slow or poor learners were afforded less wait-time than students viewed as more capable.

• Studies show that for lower cognitive questions, a wait-time of three seconds is

most effective in terms of achievement.

• For higher cognitive questions, no wait-time threshold. Students become more engaged and successful the longer the teacher waits (within reason).

Increased wait-time is related to a number of student outcomes….

• Improved achievement and retention of information

• Greater number of higher cognitive responses

• Longer responses

• Decreased interruptions

• Increased student-student interactions

Higher Cognitive Questions and Wait-Time

• Those who have examined the relationship between these factors tell us that, in a sense, they “cause” one another.

Connecting to TLE

• Handout

• Indicator #9: Teacher uses active learning, questioning techniques and/or guided practices to involve all students.

Causal Relationship

• Researchers believe that a causal relationship may exist between the two:

• Higher cognitive questions require more wait-time,

• And, more wait-time allows for the implementation of higher cognitive discussions.

Question to Increase Understanding

• The following sample questions focus on thinking skills and are intended to increase student understanding of information. The questions are divided according to the cognitive skills they target (Dr. Judy Van Voorhis, Education Department, Muskingum College).

Observing and Recalling

• What did/do you notice about this _____ ?

• What did/do you feel/see/hear/smell _____ ?

• What do you remember about ____ ?

• What did you find out about _____ ?

• How did _____ ?

Relationships, Summarizing, Organizing, and Retelling

• Tell me in your own words how _____ ? • What's another way we could

say/explain/express that? • How are these similar/different? • Which ones do you think belong together?

Why do you think these belong together? Why don't the others belong?

• What happened to cause _____ ? • What things/events lead up to _____ ?

Predicting, Inferring, and Anticipating• What do you think are some reasons/causes that

_____ ? • What feeling do you think made _____ act as he/she

did? • If _____ were changed, what do you think would have

happened/would not have happened? Why do you think it would have happened? Why do you think it wouldn't have happened?

• What do you think happened before/yesterday/earlier/when _____ ?

• Judging from the title/picture, what do you think is about/is going to happen?

Reflective Questioning

• The purpose of reflective questions is to encourage students to think carefully about material and to process information in new ways.

• Examples of reflective questions, adapted from King (1992) are provided below.

Examples of Reflective Questioning• What is the main idea of _____ ? • How does _____ affect _____ ? • What is the meaning of _____ ? • What is a new example of _____ ? • Explain why _____ ? • Explain how _____ ? • What conclusions can be drawn from _____ ? • What is the difference between _____ and _____ ? • How are _____ and _____ similar? • How would I use _____ to _____ ? • What are the strengths and weaknesses of _____ ? • What is the best _____ and why? • This idea is important because _____ .

ActivityThink-Pair-Share

Materials needed: Bloom’s Revised Chart

Instructions: 1. Work with a partner. Be prepared to share with

the group.2. Read through the 6 levels of Bloom’s Resources3. Discuss the information presented this morning. Include prior knowledge and/or personal experience and judgment.4. Make connections. “Jot Down” as much information as you can to make connections for each of the 6 levels.

Personal Time to Browse and Reflect

• www.alcaweb.org• Strategies Room• Questioning Topic– 1 Basics– 2 Tools

K-W-L

• Reflection and Share

A Questioning Toolkit

http://www.questioning.org/Q7/toolkit.html

Districts should create a Questioning Toolkit which contains several dozen kinds of questions and questioning tools. This Questioning Toolkit should be printed in large type on posters which reside on classroom walls close by networked, information-rich computers.

Examples of Question Typeshttp://www.questioning.org/Q7/toolkit.html

Essential Questions

Subsidiary Questions Hypothetical Qu

estionsTelling Questions

Planning Questions

Organizing Questions

Probing Questions

Sorting & Sifting Questions

Clarification Questions

Strategic Questions

Elaborating Questions

Unanswerable Questions

Inventive Questions

Provocative Questions

Irrelevant Questions

Divergent Questions

Irreverent Questions

Personal Time to Browse and Reflect

• www.alcaweb.org• Strategies Room• Questioning Topic– 1 Basics– 2 Tools– 3 Plans

What should be included in a Questioning Toolkit?

• Brainstorm

ActivityBrainstorm

Instructions: 1. Work with a partner. Be prepared to share

with the group.2. Read through the resources in the ppt and

the3. Discuss the information presented this morning. Include prior knowledge and/or personal experience and judgment.4. Brainstorm: “Jot Down” questioning strategies to include in the “Questioning Toolkit”.

Tally Questioning FrameworkEvaluative Processing

Bloom’s Taxonomy Simplified ClassificationRecall and Understand • Lower Cognitive Questions

• Closed Questions• Convergent Responses

Apply and Analyze • Transitional

Evaluate and Synthesize • Higher Cognitive Questions• Open-ended Questions• Divergent Responses

Create and Publish • Student-Centered Learning• Embedded Learning

Text Dependent Questions

• Handout

• An effective set of text dependent questions delves systematically into a text to guide students in extracting the key meanings or ideas found there.

IF, you want to stretch…

Question-Answer Relationship (QAR)

• http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy/comprehension_strategies.html

• http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/question_answer_relationship/

• http://www.readingquest.org/strat/qar.html

Close Reading

• Website

• When you close read, you observe facts and details about the text. You may focus on a particular passage, or on the text as a whole.

• Your aim may be to notice all striking features of the text, including rhetorical features, structural elements, cultural references; or, your aim may be to notice only selected features of the text—for instance, oppositions and correspondences, or particular historical references.

Socratic Questioning

• http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/socratic/second.html

• What is Socratic Questioning? – Carleton College

• 6 part presentation with examples of Socratic Method and Questioning

Su

Deliberate Practice

• Ask a colleague to observe a lesson, paying particular attention to the types of questions and student responses. Meet to discuss the observations and plan for improvement.

• Videotape yourself teaching a lesson. When you watch, record your wait-time for each question. Also note if you provide longer wait-times to certain students. Or examine your feedback. Are you specific and focused on the students’ responses?

FIZZ Practice and Reflect Video

Introduction to FIZZ – PUBLISHhttps://www.fi.ncsu.edu/project/fizz/• 3.56 video

Reach Your Potential - Flip Your Classroomhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k7LqIp2CH8 • 4.31 minute videoNorth Carolina State University

Summarize at the End of Every Class

• Comfort Survey• 3-2-1• SMART Goal and Action Plan

• SHAREwww.alcaweb.orgStrategiesTopic – Questioning Strategies