Develop Your Questioning Techniques

Patty Blanton 

Assistant Editor The Physics Teacher 

Instructional coach for Modeling High School Physics, Physical Science, and Chemistry MSP

Grant

Classroom ClimateClearly establish the expectations of the learning partners

Expectations of Students: 1. Contribute to building knowledge 2. Answer questions clearly, carefully, and thoughtfully3. Speak so that everyone in class can hear4. Respect the ideas of others5. Challenge ideas respectfully6. Engage in dialogue to clarify ideas presented

Expectations of Teacher: 1. Plan significant questions to develop understanding of the established instructional goal2. Provide sufficient wait time3. Keep the discussion focused4. Encourage students to elaborate and clarify responses 5. Draw in as many students as possible6. Periodically summarize

Assessing for Prior Knowledge

Checking for prior knowledge gives insight to guide your instruction. Periodic assessments during a unit help adjust your planning to meet the needs of students. Example: Using www.wordle.net to determine what ideas students think are important about the topic being discussed Other possibilities:Pre-tests                concept mapping (Inspiration)" clickers"various web applications such as online surveys 

 

Bloom's Revised Taxonomy

1.Knowledge  (remember)2.Comprehension  (understand)3.Application  (apply)4.Analysis  (analyze)5.Synthesis  (create)6.Evaluation  (evaluate)

 

Jamie MacKenzie's Questioning Toolkit

http://www.fno.org/nov97/toolkit.html Types of questions and various tools to develop these questions and answers  

A Thinker's Guide the Socratic Questioning Sample

Let's PracticeLesson on motion: What is motion and what are the ways we can describe it? Teacher will:Plan activities to engage studentsThink about the types of questions to ask and strategies to guide the development of ideasPlan the assessment strategies to check progress Students will:Observe, ask questions, contribute ideas, collect and analyze data, draw conclusions based on the data, apply the concept to several situations 

Building a model for motion:

Watch the moving objectsDescribe the motionIdentify what is changing and what is measurableIs there a pattern to what is changing and how it is changing?Collect and analyze data to identify patternSummarize resultsDevelop operational definitions and associate names to the conceptsApply to a novel situation

Types of representations

Graphs and mathematical representations

 Help identify and quantify relationships between variables Mathematical equations come from curve-fitting to graphed data 

Graphic and descriptive representations

 Motion mapsConcept mappingDiagramsVerbal representations

Links to helpful websites

Integrating Technology into the Classroom using Instructional Strategies based on the research from: Classroom Instruction that Works by  Marzano, Pickering,  Pollockhttp://www.tltguide.ccsd.k12.co.us/instructional_tools/Strategies/Strategies.html Professional Organizations: AAPT:  http://www.aapt.org/NSTA: http://www.NSTA.org/Modeling Science Instruction: http://modeling.asu.edu/modeling-HS.html