Questioning

Allow sufficient wait time for students to answer your questions (approximately 10 seconds). This silence can be uncomfortable at first but once it becomes a classroom habit all students will feel more confident that they will have a chance to process, formulate and respond.

Use questions that CONNECT two ideas or concepts. For example, “Now that we know about the conservation of energy, how does this help us relate to the kinetic and potential energy of an object?”

Use questions to give you feedback on whether students have understood the material. For example, “What part of the equation was most difficult for you?”

Do not leave the last 2-3 minutes of a class to ask, “Any questions?”, this may turn into a signal that class has ended.

Have students formulate questions prior to class, maybe as a homework assignment.

Use question words from all levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, especially higher-level types to increase student’s ability to infer. For example:

Criticize, predict, formulate, develop, analyze, compare, contrast, infer, demonstrate, interpret, summarize, defend, evaluate, design, and construct.

After finishing a unit or chapter, devote class time for students to formulate their own test questions. Clearly instruct them on the format you expect. For example, instruct them to develop 10 vocabulary matching words, 10 multiple choice questions, and two open response questions. They are to construct the test and answer the questions fully. They may do this with a partner. The teacher reads these questions to the class as a review and the teacher may use some of these questions on the actual test. This is very motivational to students and is a great assessment tool.

Think - Aloud

· Teacher reads text, stopping to share his/her questions to model for students and then student reads text aloud and shares their own questions related to the text.

KWL Chart (Three Column Sheet)

· Scan title of text, pictures, diagrams, charts and ask students to develop questions related to the upcoming text.

Read – Talk – Write

· Students read alone or in pairs, then they talk to a partner about the text, and develop questions to discuss with the class.

Guided Questions

· Students are given a question before reading the text to keep in mind as they are reading. They are expected to write or discuss their individual answers after the reading. Some examples are:

Learning Logs or Journals

·Student keeps a journal or log to record questions they have as they are reading.

Double Entry Journal

Impersonations

· Students ask questions of a character while another student takes the persona of the character.

Quick Write (or Ticket to Leave)

· Students write ideas, main idea, feelings, questions in a set time period (90 seconds)

Stump the Teacher

· Students compose and ask the teacher the most difficult questions they can relate to text

· After finishing a unit or chapter students formulate their own test questions. Clearly instruct them on the format you expect. For example, instruct them to develop 10 vocabulary matching words, 10 multiple choice questions, and two open response questions. They are to construct the test and answer the questions fully. They may do this with a partner. The teacher reads these questions to the class as a review and the teacher may use some of these questions on the actual test. This is very motivational to students and is a great assessment tool.

Competence	Skills Demonstrated
Knowledge	Question Cues: list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where, etc.
Comprehension	Question Cues: summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend
Application	Questions Cues: apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover
Analysis	Question Cues: analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, infer
Synthesis	Question Cues: combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, what if?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize, rewrite
Evaluation	Question Cues assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summarize

From Benjamin S. Bloom Taxonomy of educational objectives.
Published by Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA. Copyright (c) 1984 by Pearson Education.

Do not be afraid to ask questions in class! Your teachers want you to understand the material.

As you read, anticipate what questions you may be asked. Questions are usually related to the main idea and theme of the passage so don’t get bogged down with tiny details such as, “What color was the main character’s shoes?” Teachers will be more likely to ask more important questions such as, “Why do you think the character reacted that way?”

Make up your own test and answer the questions you devised as a way to study for a test. You may chose to do this with a partner for double the fun!

As you read, ask your self questions about the text and read on to see if your questions are answered. This builds your critical thinking muscles.