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The Art of Questioning: The Teacher’s RoleThis issue of Making the Common CoreCome Alive! focuses on the teacher’s role inquestioning; next month’s issue will focus onstudent generated questions.

The Common Core State Standards requirestudents to be active learners and questionersin the classroom. For instance, in EnglishLanguage Arts, beginning as early askindergarten, students are expected to ask andanswer questions about key details in a text.Once students reach fourth grade, they areexpected to draw inferences and cite textualevidence to support their thinking. Embeddedin English Language Arts Standard 1, all theway through twelfth grade, students arequestioning the texts they are reading andusing a variety of textual citations whengenerating and responding to questions.Students, therefore, need to be taught how tobe metacognitive, in other words, how to“think about their thinking,” in order to poseand answer questions that will propel theirlearning forward.

In mathematics, questioning is critical insupporting meaningful discussions. TheNational Council of Teachers for Mathematics(NCTM) Standards identify the role questionsplay in the mathematics classroom. Teachersuse questioning in order to:• Help students work together to make sense

of the mathematics• Help students rely more on themselves to

determine whether something ismathematically correct

• Help students learn to reasonmathematically

• Focus on helping students learn toconjecture, invent, and solve problems

• Help students connect the mathematics, itsideas, and its applications

In addition, having unanswered questions putsstudents in the mindset for learning. Questionsserve to pique students’ interest, and increasemotivation for learning. Teachers can preparetheir students to pose thought-provokingquestions and seek answers through the use ofmeaningful questioning and discussiontechniques themselves. In classrooms thatemphasize the use of questions, students shareresponsibility for their learning and it is theirinquiries as well as their responses that cementtheir understanding.

Classroom teaching practices, includingquestioning, are critical indicators of teachereffectiveness. When questioning, teachersshould focus on posing open-ended questionsof a consistent quality that allow students timeto reflect and respond. In order to engagestudents meaningfully, questions should beprepared in advance. By doing so, teachers areable to wrestle with the essential to knowcontent and ensure that questions arepurposeful and aligned with the instructionalgoals for the lesson. Carefully scaffoldedquestions lend themselves to students’discoveries of new possibilities and importantreal world connections, while allowing studentsthe opportunity for dialogue with their peers.

Heather, the author ofMaking the CommonCore Come Alive! isthe principal ofMendon CenterElementary School inPittsford CentralSchool District, NewYork. She is also a co-author of Creating aCulture for Learningpublished by Just ASK.

December 2012

Heather Clayton Kwit

P.2 Rationale for Wait Time

P.3 Stems That Promote Evidence-Based

Thinking

P.3 Open-Ended Questions for Responding

to Reading*

P.4 Open-Ended Questions for Thinking

Mathematically*

P.4 New Learning in 8th Grade Math

P.4 Practicing Skills and Deepening Under-

standing in 11th Grade Social Studies

P.5 Applying New Learning in 3rd Grade

Math

*These open-ended questions are for parents

and teachers alike.

In This IssueSubscribe and access archives

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Language and DeliveryThe clarity of the questions asked is important.Students need to be able to hear a teacher’squestion and translate it into their own words,therefore showing they understood the purposefor the question in the first place. When posingquestions for students to ponder, the questionbecomes accessible to all learners when it isposted visually along with the oral inquiry.

When asking questions of their students,teachers should bear in mind the diverselearners in their classrooms. For instance, assecond language learners are learning English,they should also be acquiring thinking skills.Therefore, when questioning second languagelearners, it is important to still engage them athigher levels while providing a safety net forwhen the wording of the questions slows themdown.

Teachers need to remember to ask questions ofall students, even those who may struggle.When presenting questions, content specificvocabulary should be used and many of thequestions asked should be open-ended andelicit a variety of responses from students. Bydoing so, teachers are communicating highexpectations for all students.

Wait TimeResearch shows that on average, a teacher waitsone second after asking a question or onesecond after a student responds to a questionbefore talking. In an effort to not make astudent feel uncomfortable or to perceivablykeep the discussion “moving,” teachers haveinadvertently missed many opportunities toenrich the learning for all students. To increasestudent engagement and boost achievement, theuse of Mary Budd Rowe’s Wait Time whenquestioning is essential.

After posing questions to students, Wait Timeis critical, as it gives the teacher a chance tomeasure the students’ understanding. If theteacher immediately responds, it may stop anyfurther questioning or reflection on the part ofthe students. When listening to students’responses, teachers should remain open to thethinking that is being conveyed, rather thanfocusing on hearing “the right answer.” Afterposing a question, teachers need to provide

Wait Time for students to generate theirresponse. By providing Wait Time, studentsare given the opportunity to think aloud, usesupportive evidence, elaborate on their ideas,and/or ask additional questions. Wait Timealso helps to prevent the teacher from askingmultiple questions in succession, andencourages giving students the time to ponder,hypothesize, and think deeply about importantideas.

Wait Time is also important to give after astudent has responded to a question beingasked. This gives the other students a chance tounderstand the responding student’s line ofthinking. If a student does not answer thequestion correctly or completely, the teachershould continue to listen and ask forclarification in the students’ thinking. Even iferroneous in its ways, the thinking of allstudents should be respected. Remember, it issometimes students’ misunderstandings thatlead teachers to the greatest understanding oftheir students.

Managing Students’ ResponsesJust as important as the questions being askedare thoughts about how you expect the studentsto respond. There are many importantconsiderations such as if the students willrespond orally or in writing, and how you willgive all students opportunities to respond. Onestrategy to get all students engaged inresponding is to pose questions that do nothave one right answer, ask students to firstthink about the response on their own, theninvite students to talk with a peer or smallgroup about their answers. Their dialogue withclassmates will help to shape their thinking; itwill either serve to grow their answer or pushthem to revise their thinking altogether. Otherways to get all students involved in respondingto questions include:• Invite students to show a thumbs up or

thumbs down (or some other signal) toindicate agreement

• Use whiteboards and have each studentrecord their response, then hold up theirboards

• Provide red, yellow, and green Signal Cards• Invite students to respond chorally • Use Numbered Heads Together, where

• Students have more�me to think.

• More students have�me to prepare aresponse.

• More studentspar�cipate inresponding.

• Students can makegreater sense oftheir classmates’responses.

• Teachers are lesstempted to answertheir ownques�ons.

• Students give longerresponses.

• Students spendmore �mepondering the ideaspresented.

• Teachers ask fewerques�ons, andthose they do askare at a higher level.

Rationale

for Wait Time

students form groups of four or five, eachstudent takes a number, the groupcollaboratively responds to the question, andthen the teacher chooses one number atrandom to give the answer

Along with the language of the questionsthemselves, is teaching students the language ofresponse. Providing “stems” for students’responses will help to frame their thinking andwill encourage the use of evidence in theiranswers. In addition, students should be taughtto listen carefully, think about what is beingasked, and consider the answer before sharingideas out loud.

After posing questions and giving students anopportunity to respond, there is the hard workof keeping the class discussion moving as youhandle student responses. One practice to avoidis that of just gathering students’ comments.Rather, you want to respond in a way that isconnecting students’ ideas while keeping theirvoices at the forefront of the conversation.The goal is to keep students discussing andthinking deeply about an idea, not layering onunrelated comments.

When students respond, invite others toelaborate, build on, or respectfully disagree withothers’ thinking. In order to do this, the teachermight turn the discussion back to the students.The teacher might ask questions like:• What makes you think that?• How does your answer fit into the big picture

of what we are discussing?• Can anyone say ______’s idea in a different

way?

The teacher might also ask for the rationale for

an answer or a solution. Students will becomeaccustomed to the need to provide thisevidentiary support if it is a regular part ofclassroom routines. Finally, to keep thediscussion moving, the teacher might elicitalternative ideas and solutions by askingquestions like:• What is another way to approach this

problem?• What are some different ways of thinking

about this?

When students have responded incorrectly, it isimportant to seek the root cause of theirincorrect response. Teachers should listencarefully, allow space between the students’response and their own response, probe thestudent for elaboration or further clarification,and ask questions that promote furtherreflection. If a student’s response completelymisses the mark, the teacher can manage thatresponse by saying things like:• Say more about that...• What do you mean when you say...?• Can you say that in another way or provide an

example?

If the student continues to remain “stuck,” theteacher can invite students to turn and talk witha partner and then pose the question again.Incorrect responses often reveal as much aboutlearners as correct responses. Finding out whatinfluenced a students’ thinking can be revealingand serve as invaluable assessment data for theteacher.

Now that we’ve considered the fundamentalsof strong questioning techniques, let’s explorethe critical junctures within units and lessonswhere questions should play a starring role.

With the Common Core State Standards,there is specific content students are expectedto know deeply. Teachers need to be ever sothoughtful in how they are introducing newcontent and using questioning to deepen stu-dents’ understanding. As each new piece oflearning is introduced, questions help studentsto process the new content. At the end of eachlesson within a unit, students should grapplewith ways to summarize the relevance of thelearning, make connections to what they alreadyknow, and be reflective about what they understand and don’t understand.

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Stems That Promote

Evidence-Based Thinking

• For example...• For instance...• Based on what I read...• The author stated...• According to the text...• On page ______, it said...• From the reading I know that...

Open-Ended

Questions for

Responding to

Reading*

• Why does...?

• What kind of personis (name ofcharacter)? What isthe evidence fromthe text to supportyour thinking?

• What did the authormean when he/shesaid ______?

• What is the mostimportant lesson thecharacter learns inthe story?

• What is the themeof this text?

• What is the mainidea of the ar�cle?

• The purpose of thistext is to...

• Why is ______important to thestory?

• How is theinforma�onorganized on thiswebsite?

• How would the storybe different if toldfrom ______’s pointof view?

• What backgroundknowledge did theauthor need to havein order to write thistext?

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• Can you explain howyou found youranswer?

• Do you agree with______’s thinking?Why or why not?

• What is a differentway to explain thesolu�on to thisproblem?

• How can yourepresent the mathin this problem?

• Does this makesense?

• Will your theoryalways work?

• How can you proveyour theory?

• What if...?

• What pa�erns doyou no�ce?

• When have yousolved a problemlike this before?

• What is known?What is unknown?

• How does thisproblem relate toother math you’velearned?

Consider the role of questioning in this vignette in which eighth graders are studying thePythagorean Theorem, and how to apply the Theorem to determine unknown side lengths inright triangles in real-world and mathematical problems in two and three dimensions (CCSS8.G6 and 8.G7).

• The teacher begins the lesson by asking students to think about the following:• What do you know about triangles?• Why does a²+b²=c²?

• After students bring forth their prior knowledge on the topic, the teacher shows the studentsa proof “without words” video clip on the Smart Board. Students are then asked to discussthe following question with a peer:• Can you explain the proof?• What questions do you have about ______’s explanation?

• Students then watch the clip again, thinking about whether they agree or disagree with theiroriginal lines of thinking. After further discussion with peers, the teacher asks: “Does any-one have a different way to explain it? Students are then asked the following questions de-signed to help them reflect on their understanding:• Does it make sense?• What is clear? What is confusing?

• To end the lesson, the teacher leaves students with a question to ponder. This same questionwill be used to begin the next class. A possible question is: “Will it always work? Why or whynot?”

Once students have engaged in learning new content, it becomes time for them to either practice a new skill related to their new knowledge or to gain further depth in their understanding.

In the example below, eleventh graders have just analyzed the Preamble to the Constitution forits themes, purposes, and rhetorical features (CCSS 11.RIT.9).

• To begin the lesson, the teacher asks:• What do you remember about our discussion of the Preamble?• What emerged as an important theme? What evidence did you cite to support that

thinking?• Students are then asked to review how they annotated the text in the previous class, and

discuss it with a peer. The teacher then asks: “After reviewing this information with a peer,how has your thinking been extended or changed?”

• Students are then charged with using the same strategies for analyzing a document they usedin the previous class, and given the task of analyzing the Bill of Rights. The teacher asksguiding questions such as:• What are some similarities and differences between the Preamble and the Bill of Rights?• What do you notice about the language used in each? Why did the authors choose that

language?• What was new learning for you when you analyzed the Bill of Rights?

Open-Ended

Questions for

Thinking

Mathematically*

New Learning in 8th Grade Math

Practicing Skills and Deepening Understanding

in 11th Grade Social Studies

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Please include the following citation on all copies:Kwit, Heather Clayton. “The Art of Questioning: The Teacher’s Role.” Making the Common CoreCome Alive! December 2012. Available at www.justaskpublications.com. Reproduced withpermission of Just ASK Publications & Professional Development (Just ASK). ©2012 by Just ASK.All rights reserved.

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Once students have learned new content, practiced new skills, and deepened their knowledge base,it is then time for them to apply their learning in new and meaningful situations. The teachers’questions at this juncture serve to lift the level of students’ thinking and engage them in rigorouswork.

In this scenario, third graders have been explaining equivalence of fractions and comparing fractions by reasoning about their size (CCSS 3.NF.3).

Students are asked to come up with as many different ways as they can to explain that a fraction isequivalent to one half.• With your partner, can you create a hypothesis about when fractions are equivalent to one half ?• How can you prove it? • What examples can you use to support your hypothesis?

Applying New Learning in 3rd Grade Math

In summary, the art of teaching relies heavily on effective questioning techniques. Questions have thepotential to change classrooms and strengthen student achievement. Through our questions, our stu-dents become thinkers, and they learn the important traits of perseverance, risk taking, creativity, and flexibility.

*These questions are for teachers and parents alike.