Questioning Practices And Strategies

QUESTIONING PRACTICES AND STRATEGIES

How to Challenge Gifted and Highly Able Students Through Open-Ended and High Level Questioning Practices

Created and Presented by: Michelle Miller

THE FORMULATION OF A PROBLEM IS OFTEN MORE ESSENTIAL THAN ITS SOLUTION, WHICH MAY BE MERELY A MATTER OF MATHEMATICAL OR EXPERIMENTAL SKILL…

TO RAISE NEW QUESTIONS, NEW POSSIBILITIES, TO REGARD OLD PROBLEMS FROM A NEW ANGLE, REQUIRES CREATIVE IMAGINATION AND MARKS REAL ADVANCES.

Albert Einstein

EFFECTIVE QUESTIONERS…………..

…are inclined to ask a range of questions: What evidence do you have? How do you know that’s true? How reliable is this data source?

…pose questions about alternate points of view: From whose viewpoint are we seeing, reading, or

hearing? From what angle, what perspective, are we viewing this

situation?

…pose questions that make causal connections and relationships:

How are these people, events, or situations related to each other?

What produced this connection?

EFFECTIVE QUESTIONERS….

…pose hypothetical problems characterized by “IF” questions:

What do you think would happen IF? IF that is true, then what might happen IF?

…recognize discrepancies and phenomena in their environment, and they probe into their causes:

Why do cats purr? How high can birds fly? Why does the hair on my head grow so fast, while the

hair on my arms and legs grow so slowly? What would happen if we put the saltwater fish in a

fresh water aquarium? What are some alternative solutions to international

conflicts, other than wars? (Costa, A.L. & Kallick, B. 2000).

BLO

OM

’S T

AX

ON

OM

Y

Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to help you and your students create questions that develop high order thinking.

Focus on the higher levels: Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation

QUESTION PROMPTS FOR BLOOM’S ANALYSIS

How can you classify __according to___? How can you compare the different parts of_ to _? What explanation do you have for__? How is __connected to___? How can you sort the parts of__? Discuss the pros and cons of___? How would you explain__? What can you point out about__? What can you infer about___? What ideas validate__? How would you change___?

QUESTION PROMPTS FOR BLOOM’S SYNTHESIS

What alternatives would you suggest for__? What changes would you make to revise__? How would you explain the reason for__? How would you generate a plan to__? What could you invent to__? What facts can you gather about__? Predict the outcome if__? What would happen if__? How would you portray__? What would you create to demonstrate___? How can you personalize the information

you’ve gained about __?

QUESTION PROMPTS FOR BLOOM’S EVALUATION

What criteria would you use to assess__? What data was used to evaluate__? What choice would you have made__? How would you determine the facts about__? What is most important about__? How could you verify__? How would you rate the__? How would you grade__? What is your opinion of__? How could you justify___? How would you defend___?

THINK ABOUT A STORY YOU WILL TEACH ONE OF YOUR GROUPS THIS WEEK. HOW CAN YOU USE THE HIGHER LEVELS OF BLOOM’S TAXONOMY TO CREATE GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS?

Using the Bloom’s Question Prompts for Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation, write several questions that you can discuss with your reading group this week.

THINKING ACTIVELY IN SOCIAL CONTEXT (TASC)

TASC is a multiphase problem-solving model developed by Belle Wallace and Harvey Adams that incorporates basic thinking skills and tools for effective thinking.

The components of TASC are:GATHER/ORGANIZE “What do I know about

this?”IDENTIFY “What is the task?”GENERATE “How many ideas can I think of?”DECIDE “Which is the best idea?”IMPLEMENT “Let’s do it!”EVALUATE “How well did I do?”COMMUNICATE “Let’s tell someone!”LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE “What have I

learned?”

QUESTIONS TO DEVELOP THINKING IN THE TASC PROBLEM-SOLVING MODEL

What information do I have?

How much do I understand?

Have I met this before?

What questions can I ask?

What are my goals? What am I trying to

do? What are the

obstacles? What do I need to do

this? Why can’t I do this? What do I need to

know?

Gather/Organize Identify


Who can help me? Where can I find out

more? What do other

people think? How can I find this

out? Is there another way

to do this?

What will happen because of my decision or action?

What are the arguments for and against?

Which are the most important ideas?

What is my plan?

Generate Decide


How do I check my progress?

Am I doing this correctly?

Is my plan working? What do I do next?

What have I done? Could I do it better

next time? Did I solve the

problem? Did I work as well as

I could? Would I do it

differently next time? Did I work well in my

group?

Implement Evaluate


Who can I tell? How can I tell or

present? What should I say? How can I explain? How do I interest

someone else? Do I have the right

information?

How have I changed?

What do I think and feel now?

How else can I use what I’ve learned?

How would I do this again?

Communicate Learn From Experience

Students as Inquirers

HELPFUL TECHNIQUES TO GUIDE STUDENTS INTO INQUIRY

Use Bloom’s Question Prompts as question starters for kids.

Make 2 cubes to be used for questions.

The first cube contains the words: why, how, when, what, who, whereThe second cube contains the words: might, should, would, is/are, can, will


Students roll dice to begin writing questions.

They follow a teacher made script that corresponds to the number they role.

Students write questions on a pie chart spinner.


Create a questioning game with points given to types of questions asked.

This could be a whole class interactive game show, a board

game, or competitive point keeping for prizes.

QUESTION POINTS FOR GAME ACTIVITY

1. Knowledge2. Comprehension3. Application4. Analysis5. Synthesis6. Evaluation7. Combining 2

questions8. Combining 2 high

level questions

1. Sense: The Qs are clear intelligent and complete.

2. Truth: The Qs are based on accurate information.

3. Relevance: The Qs fit the task and are appropriate.

4. Foundation: The Qs contain facts, reasons, or examples that frame and idea or point of view.

5. Complexity: The Qs contain divergent ideas with many details the reflect creativity.

6. Originality: The Qs apply knowledge to past and present experiences that express new, imaginative ideas.

7. Autonomy: The Qs reflect an individuality of unique thought

Bloom’s Based Points

Quality Based Points

SO

CR

ATIC

QU

ES

TIO

NS

Socratic questions are open-ended questions that allow students to think critically, analyze multiple meanings in text, and express ideas with clarity and confidence.

A TAXONOMY OF SOCRATIC QUESTIONS

What do you mean by? What is your main point? Could you give an example? Could you explain that

further? How does ___ relate to ___? Could you put that another

way? What do you think is the

main issue here? How does this relate to our

discussion, issue? Could you summarize what

(Student Name) said?

What are you (they) assuming?

What could we assume instead?

All of your reasoning depends on the idea that __. Why have you based your reasoning on __ rather than ___?

You seem to be assuming ___. How would you justify taking this for granted?

Is it always the case? Why do you think the assumption holds here?

Questions of Clarification Questions that Probe Assumptions


How do you know? Are those reasons

adequate? Do you have any

appropriate evidence for that?

Is there reason to doubt that evidence?

How could we go about finding out whether that is true?

What other information do we need to know?

Why have your chosen this perspective rather than that perspective?

Could anyone else see this another way? Why?

What would someone who disagrees say?

How could you answer the objection that __ would make?

What is an alternative? How are (Student Name)

and (Student Name) ideas alike?

Questions that Probe Reasons and Evidence

Questions about Viewpoints or Perspectives


What are you implying by that?

When you say ___, are you implying ___?

If that happened, what else also would happen as a result? Why?

Would that necessarily happen or only probably happen?

If this and this are the case, then what else also must be true?

How can we find out? How could someone settle

this question? Is this the same issue as ___? What does this question

assume? Why is this question

important? Does this question ask us to

evaluate something? Do we agree that this is the

question? To answer this question,

what questions would we have to answer first?

Questions that Probe Implications and Consequences

Questions about the Question

READ “IN AND OUT OF THE DARK” BY CHARLES BUKOWSKI

Think about the following question, “Do you think this poem serves as a metaphor for Charles’ relationship with his wife? Explain.

If not, do you think this poem serves as a metaphor for something? What? If not explain.

You may write your responses if you wish

REFERENCESBukowski, Charles. (1992). The last night of the earth

poems. Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press.

Costa, Arthur L. & Kallick, Bena. (2000). Habits of mind. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Davis, Gary A. & Rimm, Sylvia B. (2004). Education of the gifted and talented: Fifth edition. Boston, MA: Pearson A and B.

Maker, C. June & Schiever, Shirley W. (2005). Teaching models in education of the gifted: Third edition. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed Inc.

Mrs. M. Miller’s Gifted and Talented Webpage. www.giftedmmiller.wikispaces.com. 2008.