Better Questioning, Better Results!Angela Peery, Ed. D. drangelapeery@gmail.com @drangelapeery

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Artful questioning may be the most powerful tool teachers have in their instructional toolkits.

What Is a Question?

A question is any sentence which has an interrogative form or function. In classroom settings, teacher questions are defined as instructional cues or stimuli that convey to students the content elements to be learned and directions for what they are to do and how they are to do it.

K. Cotton, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 1988

The Reality of Questioning in American Classrooms

Key Points

Verbal questioning is second only to lecturing as the most common instructional practice (S. Black, 2001).

60% of questions asked are low cognitive level/recall only (J. Hattie, 2009).

20% of questions are content-free and are procedural or behavioral (J. Hattie, 2009).

Teachers wait between 0.7 and 1.4 seconds after asking a question (R. Stahl, 1994).

Wait time of at least 3 seconds improves the accuracy and length of answers as well as participation by various students (R. Stahl, 1994).

Non-native English speakers need twice as much wait time to process and answer a question.

What are the implications?

What Is a Powerful Question?

Read and Mark the Text

Read the section “What Is a Powerful Question?” starting on p. 16 of the book Ask, Don’t Tell.

Circle words that represent memorable content.

Also bracket or underline key phrases. Be prepared to discuss what you marked and why.

Powerful Questions

Define Describe

Examples Non-Examples

Good questions engage students both cognitively and socially.

Improve These Questions

How does the author describe Dorothy? How do the other characters describe her?

Juan earns these test scores in his math class first semester: 89, 95, 92, 91, 86. What is his test average?

Define each: democracy, socialism, communism.

Summary

Important contentEngaging Collaborative (often)“Open” or divergent InterpretiveMetacognitive

Planning for Powerful Questioning

Bloom’s Taxonomy, Cognitive Dimension

Remember (recall, recognize, identify)UnderstandApplyAnalyze EvaluateCreate

Bloom’s Taxonomy, Knowledge Dimension

Factual (also called declarative)ConceptualProceduralMetacognitive

Bloom and Webb

What do teachers understand well?What do teachers need to understand better?

What will you act upon? Write it down.

Essential Questions

Open-ended Generally has no one correct answer Provocative Calls for analysis, inference, evaluation, or prediction

Represents a transferable idea – sometimes across disciplines

Raises other questions Requires justification Can be asked over and over again

Questioning That Builds Oral Language Skills

Improving Think-Pair-Share

See p. 3 of your handout.Let’s read and discuss.

From Teach Like a Champion

Format Matters (complete sentences)Right Is Right (no “rounding up”)

Speaking in Paragraphs

Partner A: Why do you think we should study viruses? Answer in a paragraph.

Partner B: We should study viruses in order to understand how to prevent diseases. For example, we can learn how viruses reproduce to make vaccinations, like for smallpox. That's all I can think of.

Partner A: You could add, "Another reason to study viruses is to learn how they spread from one person to another.”

(Switch roles.)

Let’s Try!Why should students take notes?Why should we use technology in class?

Speaking in Paragraphs

How could you take this idea back to your site?

What questions or concerns do you have?

Questioning That Enriches Vocabulary

Levels of Knowing a Word

1. No knowledge—never heard or saw the word

2. May have heard it, but don’t really know what it means

3. Can make general associations with the word & recognize it within context (receptive vocabulary)

4. Have a rich understanding of the word & can use it in speaking and writing (expressive vocabulary)

Edgar Dale, 1965

Strategies

Word SortWord Knowledge through Questioning

Let’s Try!

How are fractions and whole numbers related? How are fractions and the operation of division related?

How is the relationship between a fraction and division like or unlike the relationship between a base and an exponent?

What is the relationship among chromosomes, inherited traits, and dominance?

How is the theme of a story related to the plot of the story?

Questioning That Builds Better Writers

Teacher-Student Conferences

What do you want to make? Why did you select the title that you did? What is your favorite part of the piece? Why?

What would you like my help with? What is still bugging you about this piece of writing?

Peer Conferences

StrengthQuestionSuggestion

Questioning That Increases Metacognition

Metacognition

Read “Metacognition and Questioning,” p. 36-37 in Ask, Don’t Tell.

Choose a “most important word” from the text that you think reflects the content well.

Be prepared to share.

Mathematics

Mathwire.com – using writing in mathematicshttp://tinyurl.com/apdymn9

Processing Your Process (handout)

Questioning That Changes Classroom Culture

Pro/Con Discussion Activity

Paired activityOne is the director; the other is the speaker

Switch roles after each round

Let’s Try!ChocolateNapsPinterestThe 40-hour American work week

Let’s Try!

WineOrganic foodsFacebookESPN

Example5th Grade

Director: ”Declaring independence from England. Pro!” (claps hands once)

Speaker: ”One pro of independence was to get away from paying taxes without being able to vote for them. We didn't have representation.”

Director: ”Con!” (claps hands once) Speaker: “On the other hand, a negative for

independence was that lots of people would die in the war. And people would lose their homes and military protection by the British.”

New Director: ”Pro!” New Speaker: “Independence would allow for freedom to

have our own country and have a democracy. For example, to decide taxes.”

New Director: “Con!” New Speaker: ”However, we would have to create a

military and a government and it might cost even more than paying for the taxes to England. In addition, not every colonist wanted to go to war, either.”