Questions, Questions, Questions

My daughter's class start's each and every day with the Question of the Day. The teacher and students make funny faces, point to their temples and think really hard. It's usually something like "How many students have an 'A' in their name. It give students a chance to think about letters of the alphabet, their name, in math - creating a tally/pictograph of how many fall into each bin, they get to sort!

The over-arching goal of the QOTD is to get students settled while they wander in, wash hands, get on masks, talk about what is in their backpacks - 4yo things.

However, I notice something else that happens. They talk about it, they laugh about it, it is... a beginning. A beginning of their day, several lessons, building community.

Questioning can do this, easily. As long as we think about the questions we use. You've heard me joke (and use) the "Does anyone have any more questions?" question and the impact (or lack of) that happens from asking it. So, what kind of questions are helpful?

I recommend reading this awesome blog post from a math ed colleague Heather Johnson on What if / What is questions. Although it's math specific, I think it travels well across our content areas.

Questions are an integral part of classroom life and essential to every teacher’s pedagogical repertoire. They are also one of the elements of effective formative assessment. Questioning serves many purposes: it engages students in the learning process and provides opportunities for students to ask questions themselves. It challenges levels of thinking and informs whether students are ready to progress with their learning. Questions that probe for deeper meaning foster critical thinking skills and higher-order capabilities such as problem solving, and encourage the types of flexible learners and critical thinkers needed in the 21st century.

I also recommend taking a look at this resource that I have been sharing about different question shells to start with your questioning.

What I would like for this week:

Take a look at two questions you or another teacher asks (if you aren't currently in an internship think about some questions you have been asked as a student). Take note of them. How do students respond? How would you like them to respond? You can also write a free write about your thoughts about questions and what they mean for learning.

Create a blog post about it.

Our Tag this week is challenge-5